THEFIFTH 
SCHOOL YEAR 



HERMAN TLU KENS 




Class __LB-L5i5-5 



Book 



,L %5 



GopightN!'. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




FLOOR MAP SHOWING DENSITY OF POPULATION 

(See December Geography, p. io8) 



The Fifth School Year 



A Course of Study with Detailed 

Selection of Lesson 

Material 

Arranged by Months and Correlated 

BY 

HERMAN T. LUKENS, Ph. D. 

Head Training Teacher South-Western State Normal School. 
California, Pennsylvania 



THEODORE B. NOSS, Ph. D. 

General Editor of the Series 

Principal of the South- Western State Normal School 
California, Pennsylvania 



CHICAGO 
A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 



NOV i iSOS 



Copyright 1905 

BY 

A. Flanagan Company 



% 
^ 



o 

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■A 



PREFACE BY THE GENEEAL EDITOE 



^' The Fifth School Year ^^ is one of the School Year Series, 
prepared by the trainijng teachers of the South-Western State 
Normal School, at California, Pa. 

Of the special qualifications of Dr. Ltikens to write a book of 
this sort, it is unnecessary to speak. His fruitful and important 
work for several years -as a teacher of fifth-grade pupils and of 
student teachers practicing in the same grade, gives him a van- 
tage ground of personal experience for such an undertaking 
that few men of imiversity training possess. The work of the 
general editor on this book and others of the series, has been 
confined to suggesting the general plan and urging others to 
undertake the execution. 

It is not strange that teachers should be somewhat reluctant, 
as ours have been, to put in print their actual grade work for a 
school year. A teacher's ideal of what such work should be is 
always changing, and is always in advance of what he is able to 
set down in print. Yet in the all-important field of matter and 
method of instruction, how can progress better be made than by 
recording fearlessly the best one can do to-day and using it as 
the basis of to-morrow's betterments? 

THEO. B. NOSS. 
California, Pa. 



PEINCIPLES ON WHICH TO BASE 
A COUESE OF STUDY 

After 7'cadmg " The Fifth School Year " in manuscript, my 
friend Dr. Charles E. Browne said to me : " You should state 
at the beginning of your hooh what principles you believe in, 
so that your readers may the better understand what your work 
meansf' 

1. The course of individual development corresponds to the 
main stages of race development. 

2. Thruout the curriculum the subjects should be presented 
historically. 

3. The psychological order is of greater importance in ar- 
ranging material than the logical order. 

4. The supreme aim of school activity should be to develop 
right interests and ideals. 

5. The suitable material for any given age is such as most 
deeply rouses the natural interests of that period. 

6. Learning is essentially an active motor process and not 
one of passive sense-impression. 

7. The work in every subject should as far as possible be or- 
ganized with the depth of interest and the unity of connection 
that attaches to real life. Superficiality of treatment inoculates 
against all lasting interests. 

8. The social life of the child is the basis of correlation. 
Cooking, sewing, manual work, etc., are types or fundamental 
forms of social activity and therefore form the proper medium 
for the child^s introduction into the more formal subjects of the 
curriculum. 

9. There is no sequence of studies in the ideal curriculum. 
10. The process of education is also its goal. 



CONSPECTUS 



CONSPECTUS OF 





NATURE STUDY 


GEOGRAPHY 


HISTORY 


SEPTEMBEE 


Distribution of Seeds. 
Food of Insects. 
Food of Birds. 
Bird Census. 
Weather : Barometer. 


The Mediterranean. 

The West Coast of 
Europe. 

Directions and Dis- 
tances from Home. 

Equinoxes. 


The Homeric World. 
The Ptolemaic World. 
The Northmen. 
The Crusades. 


OCTOBER 


Tree Census. 
Oak Tree. 
Ventilation. 
Weather: Winds. 


India and the East. 

Africa. 

S. Hemisphere vs. N. 
Hemisphere. 

Latitude and Longi- 
tude. 

Proofs that the Earth 
is Round. 


The World of Marco 

Polo. 
Prince Henry. 
Columbus. 
Vasco da Gama. 


NOVEMBER 


Leafless Trees. 

Branching. 

Hibernation. 

Cocoons and Chrysa- 

lids. 
Life Histories. 
Weather: Clouds ; 

Temperature. 


The Atlantic Ocean. 
The Solar System. 
South America and 

the Pacific. 
The Philippines. 


Columbus. 
Americus. 
Magellan. 


DECEMBER 


Geologic Fauna and 

Flora. 
Coal Formation. 
"Footprints." 
Weather: Moon. 


Mexico, Peru, Florida. 
Constellations. 
Winter Solstice. 
Hudson Bay and St. 

Lawrence. 
The Floor Map. 
The Gulf States. 


Spanish Conquests : 
Cortes, Pizarro, De 
Soto. 

Other Explorations by 
French and Eng- 
lish. 

Fall of Spanish 
Power. 



10 



FIFTH YEAE WORK 



LITERATURE 



NUMBER 



Iliad and Odyssey. 
"The Golden Age." 
"Lays of Ancient 

Rome." 
"Thrall of Leif the 

Lucky." 
"Skeleton in Armor 
"Discoverer of North 

Cape." 
"The Birds of Kil- 

lingworth." 



Dialog of Marco 

Polo's Return. 
"Building of the 

Ship." 
" C o 1 u m b u s." — Joa 

quin Miller. 
Sinbad Stories. 
Raymond's "Drama of 

Columbus." 



Raymond's "Drama of 

Columbus." 
Irving's "Columbus." 
Sun and Moon Myths. 
Fiske's Account of 

Magellan. 



Prescott and Fiske. 
"Stories in the Con- 
stellations." 
"Reynard the Fox." 



Roman Notation and 

Calculation. 
The Circle and De 

grees. 
Time Measure. 
Problems in Dates. 
Height of Trees. 



The Sphere — Area of 

Its Surface. 
Distances on Globe 

Calculated from 

Scale. 
Altitude of North 

Star. 
Longitude and Time 



The Distances in the 

Solar System. 
Numeration of Large 

Numbers. 
Areas of the Oceans. 
Scale Drawing of the 

North Atlantic. 



Enlargement of Map 
of Southern States 
with help of Metric 
Ruler. 

Density of Popula- 
tion. 

Problems in Cotton, 
Sugar, Lumber. 



LANGUAGE 



Literary Society 
thruout the Year. 

Historical and Geo^ 
graphical Atlases 
Each Month. 

Grammar : Parts o f 
Speech. Stibject and 
Predicate. Objecl 
Complement. 



Condensation. 
Grammar: Attribute 
Complement. 



Order of Words, 
Pauses, and Inflec- 
tions, use the Nat- 
ural Diagramming 
of the Oral Sen 
tence. 

Gratnmar : Objective 
Complement. 



Selections Written out 
from Memory. 

Grammar : P r e p o s i - 
tional Phrases. 



THE ARTS 



Music: "But the Lord 
Is Mindful of His 
Own." 
"There's Music in 

the Air." 
"Just for To-Day." 

Drawing : Rapid 
outline sketching. 

Making: Bird-houses, 
ants' nest, clock 
face, viking ship, 
articles for acting. 



Music : Columbus 
Songs. 
"Song of the 

Waves." 
"Farewell to the 

Forest." 
"Farewell to the 
Birds." 
D r azv i n g : Human 

face. 
Making: Windmills, 
wind-vanes, junks, 
caravels, etc. 



Music: "The Spacious 
Firmament." 
" Queen of the Si- 
lent Night." 
"The Harp that 
once thru Tara's 
Halls." 
"From Greenland's 
Icy Mountains." 
Drawing: Objects in 
motion. Trees and 
birdseye views. 
Making : Astrolabe, 
lung tester, relief 
globe, Saturn mod- 
el, etc. 



Music: "He Shall 
Feed His Flock." 
"Softly Now the 

Light of Day."_ 
"Day is Dying in 
the West." 

Drawing: Suggestive 
lines and lines of 
force. 

Making : Raising of 
cotton, rice, orange 
trees, etc. State 
maps. Geological 
model. Historic 
dolls. Cotton gin. 



11 



CONSPECTUS OF 





NATURE STUDY 


GEOGRAPHY 


HISTORY 


JANUARY 


Foods and Stimulants. 
Pets and Domestic 

Animals. 
Weather: Sunrise and 

Day's Length. 


The Atlantic Coast. 
Middle Atlantic 

States. 
South Atlantic States. 


The Settlement of the 
Atlantic Coast from 
the Hudson to 
Florida. 

Indian Fur Trade. 

Piracy Along the 
Coast. 


FEBEUARY 


Ants. 

Systematic Collection 
of Insect Pictures 
on Card Catalogue. 

Weather: Highs and 
Lows. 


New England. 

St. Lawrence Valley. 


New England. 
New France. 


MARCH 


Pond Life. 

Aquarium. 

Ice Age. 

Preparation of School 

Garden. 
Weather: Rainfall. 


The Central States. 

Recalling o f Fourth 
Grade Work o n 
Prairies, Portages 
and Fur Trade. 


The French in New 
France and Louisi- 
ana. 


APRIL 


Tadpoles. 

Frogs and Birds. 

Bird Calendar. 

Arbor Day. 

Preparation for June 
Flower Show and 
Planting of Garden. 

Weather: Irrigation. 


The Western States. 

Recalling of Fourth 
Grade Work o n 
California, the Yel- 
lovt^stone, and the 
Cliff Dwellers. 


The Louisiana Pur- 
chase. 

Lewis and Clark, Fre- 
mont, Pike, Powell, 
Bering, Mackenzie. 

The Northwest Pas- 
sage. 

The Panama Canal. 


MAYandJUNE 


Brooks. 

Picnics to the Woods. 
Jurbe Flower Show. 
School Garden. 
Weather: Climate. 


Commerce and Manu- 
factures of the 
United States. 

Foreign Commerce. 


Review of the Work 
of Three Centuries 
i n Discovery o f 
America. 



12 



FIFTH YEAR WORK — Continued 



LITERATURE 



"Knickerbocker's His- 
tory." 
"Gulliver's Travels." 
The Jungle Books. 



The Jungle Books. 
"The Courtship o f 

Miles Standish." 
"Snow-Bound." 
"Among the Hills," 

etc. 



"New England Trage- 
dies." 

Parkman or Fiske on 
La Salle. 



Review of Portions 

of "Hiawatha." 
Thompson-Set on's 

"Wahb and Tito." 
"Land of Little 

R a i n," by Mary 

Austin. 



L o n sf's "School of 

the Woods." 
Robert's "Kindred of 

the Wild." 
Poems of Nature. 



NUMBER 



Enlargement of Map 
of the Middle At- 
lantic States. 

Problems in Foods. 

Day and Night Chart. 

Square Root in Popu- 
lation Charts. 

Coal Charts. 



Enlargement of Map 
of New England. 

Measuring Areas with 
Paper Units. 

Ratios in Areas. 

T^er Cent in Areas. 

Density of Population. 



Enlarged Map of 
Central States. 

School Garden to 
Scale, using Metric 
Measures. 

Percentage i n Geo- 
graphical Problems. 

Density of Popula- 
tion. 



Enlarged Map o' 
Western States. 

Problems in Popula- 
tion, Area, and 
Irrigation, Involv- 
ing Square Root, 
Ratio, Percentage, 
etc. 



Comparison of United 
States with Foreign 
Countries i n Area, 
Population, and In- 
dustries. 

Review and Summary 
of the Year's Work. 



LANGUAGE 



Condensation and Re 

writing. 
Teaching by Use. 
Grainmar : Infinitives 

in Noun Construe 

tions. 



Rhyming. 

Grammar: Infinitives 
i n Adjective and 
Adverb Construe 
tions. 



Rehearsal of Good 
Colloquial Dialogs 

Committing Prose to 
Memory. 

Grammar : Participles 
in Adjective Con- 
structions. 



Story-Telling. 

Grammar:. Participles 
in Noun Construc- 
tions. 



Correspondence with 
Other Schools on 
the Work of the 
School Year. 

Grammar: Conjuga- 
tion. 

Summary o f Year's 
Work. 



THE ARTS 



Music: "Ring out, 
Wild Bells." 
"Kind Words." 
"Abide with Me." 
"O, Come, Come 
Away." 

Drawing : Memory 
drawing and simple 
perspective. 

Making : Sand table 
models of James- 
town, etc. 



Music : "The Blue 

Bells of Scotland." 

"The Battle Hymn 

of the Republic." 

"My Old Kentucky 

Home." 

Drawing: Brush work 
for St. Valentine's 
Day. Outline draw- 
ing. 

Making : Scenes for 
the plays, models 
of Old Boston or 
Plymouth. Re- 
assembling the 
parts of a clock. 



Music: "Jerusalem the 
Golden." 
"Now the Day is 

Over." 
"Robin Adair." 

Drawing : Scenes from 
nature study, ge- 
ography and history. 

Making : School gar- 
den plan, b i r d- 
boxes, models of 
reaping machine, 
blast-furnace. 



Music: "All Thru the 
Nicrht." 

"Crossing the Bar." 
"We Lay Us Down 
to Sleep." 

Drazuing: Outdoor 
sketching and illus- 
trative drawing. 

Making : The school 
garden. 



Music: " O. Rest in 
the Lord." 

"Soldiers Chorus." 
"Decoration Day." 
Music festival. 

Draiuing : Outdoor 
sketching and illus- 
trative drawing. 

Making: School gar- 
den. Boats. 



13 



THE FIFTH SCHOOL YEAR 

INTRODUCTION 

The leading work of the fifth school year is the story of geo- 
graphical discovery, from the earliest times down to the expan- 
sion of the United States into a world power, with the digging 
of the Panama Canal, which opens Columbus's attempted 
westerly route to the Orient. It is history, but it is the history 
of geography. In the spring, the geography becomes industrial, 
but altho it is chiefly the geography of the present, it still 
correlates with the history. The literature is in the closest 
association with the history and the geography. 

The topic for the year in nature study is the inter-dependence 
of animals and plants, and in the main follows the seasonal 
changes. A daily weather record is kept. The work on this 
furnishes motive for considerable number work, astronomy, 
geography, and English. The pupils have organized the Cali- 
fornia Junior Naturalist Club, and manage in this way a con- 
siderable part of the nature work. 

The work in number, language, drawing, writing, singing, 
making, modeling, etc., grows out of the work in geography, 
history, or nature study. Besides the simpler correlations in 
minor matters, the geography makes its chief demands for aid 
from the arithmetic in the scale drawing of maps and statistical 
charts. In the latter part of the year this work becomes the 
preparation of a statistical atlas of the United States. 

All the songs selected are good, being in many instances 
classics from the great composers. Children have no time to 

17 



18 



INTRODUCTION 



waste on shallow, evanescent tunes, that fail to inspire even 
if they do not actually degrade. The drill exercises should be 
directed to the mastery of the difficulties found in the songs. 

The English work grows out of the needs and opportunities of 
the Literary Society and the preparation of the historical and 
statistical atlases. For the society, besides the usual readings 




A GROUP AT WORK 



and recitations, a periodical is edited, including prose and 
rhyme, stories, current events, advertisements, puzzles, conun- 
drums, and illustrations. 

School work never should be commercial in its nature; the 
products of the school garden, of the work bench, of the weaving, 
of the cooking and the sewing are not to be gauged by the price 
the goods bring when exposed for sale. The purpose lies in the 



INTKODUCTION 



19 




LITTLE WOMEN — ACT I, SCENE I 



development of the pupil, not in the material product. If we 
train for commercial skill, we shall hinder development. 

The main problem of our schools is properly to select and 
adapt the culture and material achievements of the- race to meet 
the needs of development in the growing and immature pupil. 
This involves the element of idealized make-believe. The school 
life is not the actual life of the world, but idealized life as 
presented on a stage. The past culture and achievement of the 
race must be presented as a drama, idealized in thought. 



20 



INTRODUCTION 



pictured by the imagination, true to nature, intensely inter- 
esting, and acted out in the motor, activity of school exercises. 

Thus, the actual activities of the past struggle for existence 
become the play activities of the present education. In this 
sense the child in play recapitulates the history of the race. 




LITTLE WOMEN — ACT II, LAST SCENE 



We must aim, therefore, so to organize this play that it will 
be as earnest as any work, as real as any experience, as true as 
any facts, as interesting as actual life. What Miss Dopp is 
doing for the industries in education* somebody must also do 

* " The Place of Industries in Elementary Education," published by the Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press. See, also, her " Industrial and Social History Series, 
Rand, McNally & Co., publishers. 



INTRODUCTION 31 

for the nature study, the literature, the mathematics, and the 
language work. 

We have need of another Shakspeare to dramatize American 
history. The usual school dialogs and special-day exercises are 
not fit to be treated as literature. Longfellow's " New England 
Tragedies '^ are not wholly appropriate in theme for school pre- 
sentation. Prof. Eaymond's " Columbus " might be slightly re- 
modeled and be made fairly usable, but it has too little of the 
element of humor. If we had such plays as Shakspeare's 
'^ Julius Csesar," but treating the dramatic episodes of our own 
history, we should have the material in proper form for 
school use. Facts are well stated in our present text-books, but 
what the children need is dialog and acting. We must have 
scenes, councils, town meetings, elections, conferences, treaties, 
plots, street parades, cabinet meetings, colonial assemblies, 
courts, schools of the olden time, games, etc. 

The life of De Soto or of Magellan would make as immortal 
a masterpiece as the tragedy of Julius Caesar. Whoever shall 
worthily dramatize the life of William Penn will do more for the 
teaching of Pennsylvania's history than anybody has yet done. 
But it will require an artist of the first rank to see the essentials, 
idealize the true, and re-create the life of the past. 

Do not degrade the drama or the dialog to exhibition purposes. 
The patrons of the school should be welcome at all times, but 
nothing should be rehearsed until it can be given as a public 
entertainment, and least of all for paid admission. It is 
intended that the acting of the " Drama of Columbus " and the 
other plays here recommended shall be done but the once, with- 
out any committing of lines, or even without a previous 
rehearsal. Such acting is a means of presenting vividly the 
matter of history so that it will be like the real events of life. 

The teacher, as prompter, stage-manager, and invisible spirit, 
must be everywhere to direct, altho nowhere is he to be tliought 



<^<^ INTRODUCTION 

of as part of the presentation. The children that take the act- 
ing parts repeat after the teacher just what he says^ and take 
their cue in acting from him. This consumes but little more 
time than would be required for one reading of the text. ' As 
soon as the scene is finished, always give opportunity for ques- 
tions and discussion, to make sure that it is rightly understood. 

For the geography stereoscopic views are of the greatest value 
in aiding in the formation of correct notions of distant scenes, 
landscape effects, geologic formations, buildings, streets, elevated 
railways, harbors, ocean steamers, volcanoes, means of transpor- 
tation, dress, fruits, flowers, irrigation, harvesting, manufactur- 
ing, mining, fishing, lumbering, sea beaches, etc. With a large 
collection of these views the children may store up correct 
images of the other parts of the country they have not seen. 
They may even write a " Diary of Our Journey thru North 
America,^^ describing the actual scenes shown in the stereo- 
scope.* 

In the training of children opportunity must be given for 
individual initiative. The formation of a strong, healthy char- 
acter depends upon such opportunity. The class should often 
be left by itself for short periods. Definite work may be 
assigned, monitors may be put in charge, or no direction what- 
ever may be given, according to the degree of self-control 
possessed by the pupils. Give the children as much freedom as 
they can stand. A great deal of voluntary work should be 
secured and much work should be done ahead of time. Culti- 
vate the feeling of responsibility. The work of learning is the 
learner's own work. Teaching can never take the place of 
learning. Without the pupils there would be no school, but 
the teacher is not essential all the time, and had better some 
of the time be absent. 

* The stereographs furnished by Underwood & Underwood, 3 & 5 West Nine- 
teenth Street, New York, are of excellent quality. 



INTRODUCTION 



33 



The school should be homelike. No expense should be 
spared to make it attractive and healthful. Time was when 
scholars had to be driven to school and flogged into learn- 
ing, but " went storming out to playing.^^ There is something 
radically wrong in a school to which the pupils do not like to go. 
If the children are better off in vacation than in school, the 
school is not doing its duty. 

Our long vacations of from two to four and even five or six 
months are a vestige of a by-gone age when education was not 




WOOD SPECIMENS AND STEREOGRAPHS. 



conceived as conscious evolution. The summer is the best time 
of all the year to go to school, if the school is adapted to the 
season as it should be. The long vacation is for most children a 
time of enforced idleness and wasted opportunities — too apt to 
be spent in mischief and the acquiring of bad habits. The 
effectiveness of school-time is very largely counteracted by the 
waste of vacation. 



24 INTRODUCTION 

Pupils should ask questions of the teacher, rather than the 
teacher ask questions of the children. Of course, the question 
is also a pedagogical tool of the first importance in the develop- 
ing method of teaching ; but things are never at their best unless 
the pupils are thinking and caring to know. When that is the 
case, they will be asking questions. Always respect a child's 
question and give him satisfaction so that he will come again. 
I have learned more from observing what my pupils ask about 
and how they frame their questions than from any other study 
of method. 

Avoid the fragmentary, short answers that result from piece- 
meal questions from the teacher. Accustom the children to 
speak connectedly on a matter until they have finished their 
thought. It is very desirable, also, that they volunteer to add 
other connected thought, without waiting for the teacher to call 
for it. This shows most strikingly in the work of the Junior 
Naturalist Club and the Literary Society, which are intended 
primarily to furnish natural conditions for individual initiative. 

No school that does not see its main purpose in character- 
building can be doing its whole duty to the children. It is 
possible to learn the book facts alone by reading. School life, 
however, is necessary to develop punctuality, honesty, order, 
neatness, care, thoughtfulness, kindness, respect for others, 
politeness, grace, self-control, and self-sacrifice. A hermit may 
be a scholar, but it takes contact with others to make a man or 
a woman. 

Of course, it is not intended that any one class shall in a year 
do all that is here outlined for the Fifth School Year. The 
teacher using this book is expected to find suggestions in it for 
her own work, but it is not to be followed as a course of study 
for the year. Hence, there is an abundance of material offered, 
far more than the average boy or girl of eleven years can assimi- 



INTRODUCTION" '^O 

late. The details of a yearns work should vary from year to year, 
and should have a local coloring and an individuality. 

Do not assign new topics or so many pages in the text-book for 
home workj exj^ecting to hear the recitation of the lesson next 
day. The home work should be the finishing of the work pre- 
viously planned, discussed, and begun at school. The pupil's 
supreme need of the teacher is felt at the opening of a new vista 
in a*new thought realm, in attacking a newly found problem, in 
adjusting his thought and feeling to the epochs of history, in 
deciding on the best methods of procedure, and in the over- 
coming of doubts and uncertainties. These matters demand 
the cordial sympathy of class work. For home work, on the 
other hand, all forms of Avritten drill, recapitulation, summary, 
and individual study or memorizing are appropriate. 




NATURE STUDY 



Let the children begin the collecting of insects. Have them 
keep diaries and note down the names of bushes^ trees, or other 
plants that they find the caterpillars eating. The important 
thing is to note the surroundings and what the insect is doing. 
Note its feeding habits, mode of cutting the leaf, postures, time 
of feeding, means of escape or defence. Have vivaria at school, 
and illustrate life histories whenever possible. Mount the in- 
sects by the method described in Hodge's " Nature Study and 
Life," Chapter IV. 

Hodge's grouping is natural: 1. Insects of the Household; 
2. Insects of the Garden; 3. Insects of Field and Forest; 4. 
Beneficial Insects ; 5. Insects Beautiful and Interesting. Such 
classification is at present more to the point than that into 

26 



NATURE STUDY 27 

orders and families. Teach something of the immense number 
of insects, both the individuals of each species and the millions 
of species. Look up the arithmetic work on page 65 of Hodge's 
book, where he calculates that a single female mosquito may 
produce between one and two million female mosquitoes in a 
single month. 

In studying the harm wrought by insects, try to give definite 
ideas by comparisons. For example, it has been calculated that 
the insects destroy about half of all the produce of the soil, thus 
dividing with man about equally all the crops. Prof. Riley 
estimates the number of insect species on the earth at 10,000,000, 

This gathering up of the testimony of havoc wrought by in- 
sects should be followed by the consideration of the means by 
which it is held in check. Study the food of birds, frogs, toads, 
and lizards. On page 323 of Hodge's " Nature Study " is a 
most interesting chart of the food of our common birds. 

The beginning of the map drawing for the year may well be 
made on a chart showing the bird census of the neighborhood of 
the school. During the winter months bird-boxes may be made 
ready to put out in the spring. The spring study of the tadpole 
will have added interest from the September work on insects. 

If the children have had garden work in the fourth grade, the 
past spring and summer, the school garden will naturally form 
the center of interest for the work this fall in the fifth grade. 

The Chautauqua Junior Naturalist Club 

The nature study work done under the auspices of Cornell 
University is managed by the children in their Junior Natural- 
ist Club. Boys and Girls, published in Ithaca, N. Y., comes 
monthly for fifty cents a year. It contains each month the club 
lesson and many other articles suggestive of the study of ani- 
mals. The lesson is usually accompanied by questions that 



28 SEPTEMBER 

guide the children in their observation as well as in their 
discussion during the club meeting. 

The club has president, vice-president, secretary, assistant 
secretary, and treasurer. Meetings are held whenever called by 
request of three or more members who have something to present 
to the club. The president prepares the order of topics and 
guides the discussion. The members sometimes present written 
papers and sometimes put drawings on the blackboard, but the 
discussion is usually conversational, each one contributing as he 
has a mind to, but always observing the formality of addressing 
the president and receiving recognition. 

The Weather Eecord 

The children should keep a daily weather record. After try- 
ing a good many different forms we have adopted the one shown 
here. If neat work expeditiously done is required, a printed 
outline is necessary. But the outline may be much simpler 
than this one, and if a simple enough form is chosen the children 
may rule their own. Each point noted in the record will need 
extended treatment in class before it can be fully understood. 
Thus the barometer, wind, thermometer, moon and stars, sun. 
High and Low on the United States Weather Map, rainfall, and 
yearly averages and summaries with charts, form the subjects 
for the course thru the year. The daily record should be noted 
down in symbols instead of written words; thus, for the wind 
directions draw arrows, for the sky draw a circle shaded to 
represent clouds. 

For September the topic treated is the barometer. Begin 
with the simplest and most familiar things that show the air 
pressure, e. g., lifting water with a pipette, inverting a half- 
filled jar of water over a basin of water, turning a tumbler of 
water upside down with only a piece of paper over the top, etc. 



NATURE STUDY 



29 



Weather Record of 



riAAA) nh^/Him^ 




ONE FORM OF WEATHER RECORD 



The action of the lift-pump and of the siphon will also help to 
make it clear. What causes this pressure of fifteen pounds to 
the square inch? 

If the school has an air pump, the weighty of air may be 
directly measured. Twelve and a half cubic feet of air weigh 



30 SEPTEMBER 

one pound. All the air weighs five quadrillion tons. Illustrate 
the transmission of pressure in all directions by the case of other 
fluids, as water. " This pressure makes water leak through the 
holes in the bottom and sides of a leaky vessel filled with water. 
The upward pressure is shown by the water entering through the 
holes in the bottom, when the empty vessel is immersed in water. 

If possible, construct a barometer for the pupils by filling a 
glass tube thirty or more inches long with mercury and then in- 
verting it in a cup of mercury. Weigh the mercury in the tube 
and divide its weight by the area in square inches of the bore of 
the tube. The quotient will be the atmospheric pressure per 
square inch. 

Secure if possible the daily weather maps of the Grovernment 
Weather Bureau. Note the barometer readings in different 
parts of the country, the position of the " High '' and " Low '' on 
successive days as the storm center sweeps to the eastward. 

For $1.55 any one can get a thousand copies of blank maps. 
Form DD, by sending to the Bureau. These are invaluable for 
much of the work in geography, history, and weather record. 
On these blank maps mark the position of High and Low for 
each day from their first appearance in the northwest till they 
disappear from the continent off the Atlantic Coast. Compare 
the local reading of the barometer with the movement of the 
High or Low in passing us. 

GEOGRAPHY 

The ancient world was the land around the Mediterranean 
Sea. Eecall what the pupils have had in previous grades as to 
the Homeric world, and draw an outline map of the world as 
Homer describes it. This gives the naive view, as the world 
looks from a m9untain-top — round like a circle. Greece is of 
course the center, and details are less and less exact and correct 



GEOGRAPHY 31 

as we go farther from home. In the golden West are the Isles 
of the Blest and the Elysian Fields. The commerce of Tyre 
and Sidon extended this knowledge to the pillars of Hercules 
and made the Mediterranean Sea known from one end to the 
other. 

Similarly, we should build out an image of the world with our 
home as the center, and by thinking of the directions and dis- 
tances from our own town get used to conceiving of the world 
with reference to where we live. It is well for this purpose to 
draw a series of concentric circles about a star on the floor or, 
better still, on the ceiling, marking the cardinal points of the 
compass and letting the distances between the circles correspond 
to the distances from our own town. Then mark on this chart as 
many of the chief places in the country as it is desired to locate 
in this way. 

Eepeated practice in thinking of the distance and pointing in 
the direction of Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Panama, Buf- 
falo, Charleston, etc., is necessary to keep the real earth in our 
thoughts instead of the maps or charts of our schoolroom. 

The early fixing in mind of direction is of the utmost impor- 
tance. The direction of the shadow of a plumb-line at noon 
should be marked in a convenient place. A school-made sun- 
dial should be set up and daily watched. A pocket compass will 
add to the interest and convenience of determining the north. 
Teach the children to recognize the pole star by the Great Dip- 
per. Train them to tell the north side of trees by the green on 
the bark. Often take the geography class out of doors for a 
lesson, and then have the pupils point out the direction and 
state the distance of places ; e. g. (pointing) , " Two hundred 
and fifty miles due east of here lies Philadelphia; the same 
distance northwest of here is Detroit," etc. 

Get a wooden butter bowl and sketch the shore line of America 
and Europe on its outside, making the home town the center. 



GEOGRAPJ-iy 



33 




BUTTER-BOWL HEMISPHERES 



TJiis will bring out many new and interesting facts, e. g., that 
l^:ere is more of the earth southwest or southeast of us than 
there is northwest or northeast of us. 

It will be helpful to make a similar butter-bowl hemisphere 
with Athens as the center or pole. The fiat bottom of the bowl 
serves to represent the part nearest home that looks fiat. 

The Eoman world should be studied from Ptolemy's map 
and a butter-bowl model with Rome as the center, but now it 
might be well to represent Ptolemy's parallels and meridians. 
A six-inch rubber ball will serve admirably to represent the 



34 



SEPTEMBER 



entire earth and show what proportion of the whole was known 
to the Eomans, as well as the fact that they did not know how 
large around it was. 

For all the geography work a large globe is very necessary. 
We have found it quite feasible to make a fifty-inch hemisphere 
as follows: Make the ribs of the dome of wood, firmly braced 
together, and then cover them with a basketwork weaving of 
thin pliable strips of wood, leaving meshes large enough for 




CLAY MODEL OF QUARTER OF THE EARTH 



plaster to clinch. On the outside of this spread a mixture of 
thoroughly macerated paper pulp and plaster such as engineers 
use to cover their steampipes. This does not crack on drying, 
and makes a very light and serviceable foundation for the 
modeling. 

On this the physiographic features are modeled in relief, in 
white zinc or white lead. After the features are finished the 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 35 

whole should be covered with a coat of varnish to protect the 
surface. 

The latter part of the month takes our attention to the west 
coast of Europe as we study the discoveries and explorations of 
the Romans and later of the vikings of Norway. 

Thruout the year the daily study of the government weather 
map is familiarizing the pupils with the geography, physical 
and political, of the United States. They learn to think of 
the country as a whole, and to follow the course of a storm, 
cold wave, or high pressure area, clear across the country. They 
thus get a better idea of climate, and the elements that compose 
it, than can be otherwise obtained. 

HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

The aim in the history work is to start with the naive view 
of the flat world of Homer's time and build out the idea of the 
globe by the steps that the race has taken in the discovery of the 
world. The chief advances made by the Eomans and the North- 
men form the work for September. 

James Baldwin describes in a charming manner how Phemius 
drew a map in the sand and taught the twelve-year-old Odysseus 
the geography of the known world. The first chapter in " A 
Story of the Golden Age," can readily be worked into shape for 
acting out as a school play. 

Not only is such presentation more effective than mere read- 
ing, but the preparation of the play, the rehearsals, the thinking 
one's way into the parts, and the making or adapting of Greek 
costumes, implements, and ways, with the learning an occasional 
Greek word, will bring the whole thing that we are teaching 
more fully before the children, and with a smaller expendi- 
ture of time will leave a more lasting impression. Portions 
should be read from the Iliad and the Odyssey, recalling what 



36 SEPTEMBER 

was taught in the previous years. Trace on another map of the 
Mediterranean the wanderings of Odysseus. 

Have the children prepare an enlarged copy of Ptolemy's map 
of the world and use it in a presentation of " A Day in a Roman 
School/' in the second century. Many of the details can be 
arranged by consulting George Clarke's " The Education of 
Children at Eome." Eead Macaulay's " Lays of Ancient Rome." 
Act out Shakspeare's " Julius Caesar/' or selected portions of it. 
Read portions of Liljencrantz's " The Thrall of Leif the 
Lucky/' to get the spirit of the viking days. Here, too, arrange 
some dialog scenes on the voyage. Commit to memory Long- 
fellow's poems " The Skeleton in Armor/' and ^^ The Discoverer 
of North Cape." Read Lowell's " The Voyage to Vinland." 

Outline the interval of the Dark Ages and the revival of in- 
terest in the East due to the Crusades. In connection with the 
nature study read Longfellow's " Birds of Killingworth." 

Thruout the year have the children commit portions of the 
Bible to memory. They should learn the Ten Commandments, 
several psalms, and portions of the Sermon on the Mount. 

The school should have a library with a constantly increasing 
number ot books accessible to the pupils. The children should 
be encouraged to read, but should not be required to do the 
task work of writing book reports. No books of an objectionable 
character should be allowed in the bookcase, and the children 
should be permitted to browse at their own sweet will. 

The school will need a considerable number of the best his- 
tories for reference. The study from the books and the prepara- 
tion of charts, maps, and other written work had best be done in 
school, where the teacher is at hand for suggestion and help. 
The persons, implements, ships, houses, and scenes studied 
should be sketched in large, bold, free outlines on the blackboard 
and on paper. 

Provide a chronol^ogical chart, the larger the better. Tack 



PIISTORY AND LITERATURE 37 

half -width slate blackboard cloth along as much of the wall as 
you can spare above the regular slate blackboard. Divide it by 
vertical lines into equal spaces for the centuries and half -centuries 
and date these. Remember that the centuries B. C. begin with 
even hundreds (900, 800, etc.) ; while the centuries A. D. begin 
with the even hundreds plus one (1, 101, 201, 301, etc.). Then 
write in the names of persons and events, and picture striking 
scenes or suggest them by symbols, national flags, and typical 
tools or implements. In Homer^s area on the chart draw a 
sketch of Homer's world; for 753 B. C. draw the wolf that 
suckled Eomulus and Eemus, etc. 

Fill the otherwise empty periods on the chart with charac- 
teristic data to show what was then going on in the world. 
Remember that we fail to realize the length of past time chiefly 
because we do not know what was going on in those past cen- 
turies. If the chart has long gaps in it, it will fail to serve as a 
means of picturing the past ages. These collateral events need 
not be dwelt upon. 

The children should be led to prepare a picture chart of 
chronology for the last five centuries. This chart may be made 
on long strips of manila paper measured ofp into centuries. 
Paste pictures on it that have been cut out of old books, maga- 
zines, newspapers, etc. Pen-and-ink sketches with some brush- 
work and topics printed in small capitals will give form to the 
series of events. 

The corresponding European history may be arranged on a 
parallel chart above the American history. This will serve 
very helpfully to keep European causes of American events in 
view, and will also familiarize the children with the lists of 
sovereigns. 

Any teacher who has artistic ability may make these history 
charts into an ornamental frieze that will extend around the 
room, adorning it as no meaningless frescoes or wallpaper pattern 



38 SEPTEMBER 

can, and leaving on the minds of the pupils a lasting image 
of the stream of time and its chief events.* 



NUMBER 

The motive for the work in arithmetic comes from the nature 
study, the geography, and the history. We need to read the 
barometer to the tenth or perhaps even to the hundredth of an 
inch. The rainfall is measured in tenths of an inch. The time 
of sunrise and sunset, the length of the day, the length of the 
night, the difference in length of the day and the night, the 
amount of change from day to day and from week to week, the 
length of the forenoon and the length of the afternoon familiar- 
ize the children with time measure. 

The geography makes necessary the study of the circle, the 
determination of its area and its circumference, and the division 
of its circumference into degrees. Make a shadow stick to 
measure the slant of the sun's rays. (See directions in Jack- 
man's "Nature Study," pages 61 and 62.) 

The chronology chart in history makes it necessary to have a 
frequent, thoro drill on the flow of time, the numbering and 
counting of the centuries, the difference in time between dates, 
etc., in order to develop in the mind of the pupil a graphic symbol 
of the stream of time. Ask how old Caesar was in the year 50 
B.C. In what year was he twenty-five years old? If such 
questions are not readily answered, enlarge portions of the chart 
and show the individual years which may then be counted. 

Teach the Eoman Notation and carry it far enough in ex- 
ercises of addition, multiplication, and division to bring out 
clearly the great advantage of the Arabic place-value notation 
and ciphering in columns. Thruout the year lay great empha- 

* See the History Chart prepared to accompany this book and intended for 
the pupils' use. Price 60 cents a dozen. A. Flanagan Company, Publishers. 



NUMBER 



39 



sis on orderly arrangement in straight vertical columns^ as 
necessary to preserve the correct place value of the figures. In 
long division arrange the quotient above the dividend, not at 
the right of the dividend. 

Whether the above exercises are to be considered arithmetic 




SURVEYING ON THE CAMPUS 



or history makes no difference to the teacher nor to the children. 
But the work that is exclusively arithmetic must on no account 
be omitted, under the mistaken notion that the children will get 
all the number work they need in such ciphering, with nature 



40 SEPTEMBER 

study or geographical material. This strictly mathematical 
work is of the nature of drill for proficiency in the mathematical 
processes. Therefore have daih^ drills in the fundamental pro- 
cesses, demanding rapid and correct work. 

A large part of the dullness in arithmetic comes from insuf- 
ficient familiarity with the simple combinations of the multipli- 
cation table and the addition table. These must by practice be 
made so familiar that they are absolutely certain, and hence do 
not raise treacherous doubts when we are solving problems. If 
some pupils do not need the drill, excuse them from it, or use 
them as pupil teachers to drill the rest that do need it. Some 
of the dullest will need it all the year. 

It is perhaps as important to be able readily to see the factors 
of a number as to know at a glance the product of those factors. 
Have the pupils count by threes, fours, fives, sixes, etc. Have 
them name the factors of eighteen, of fifty-six, of seventy-two, 
of twenty-seven, etc. How many times is seven contained in 
sixty? in forty? in fifty? in twenty? in thirty? What is the 
arithmetical complement of seven? of six? of two? of fifty-six? 
of seventy-two? of twenty-five? etc. The Southworth-Stone 
Arithmetics have excellent devices for drill. 

Pieces of slating cloth that can be hung up like a wall map are 
very useful in this work. Exercises may be written on them in 
advance of the lesson and then unrolled at a moment's notice, 
without occupying any of the slate blackboard. Or, the cloth 
may be hung on a movable stand and set up in any part of the 
room that suits the lighting requirements. Such exercises as 
Miss Aiken recommends in her book on " Methods of Mind- 
Training " may be used on these roll backboards, if revolving 
blackboards are not to be had. 

During the pleasant September weather the class should do 
some measuring and calculation of distances out-of-doors. Have 
the children measure off a mile with a surveyor's chain or 



NUMBER 41 

a half-rod pole, or even step it off and calculate the number of 
steps each child takes to the mile. Fix similarly the units of 
area, the acre, the square rod, the square yard, the square foot, 
and the square inch. Measure the distance exactly to near-by 
points of interest, the children's homes, adjacent villages, or the 
like. A little ingenuity will suffice to improvise a serviceable 
cyclometer out of a light carriage wheel, or a real one may be 
used on a bicycle. 

Such work as is described in the Journal of Geography for 
October, 1903 (p. 431), "To Make a Map of a Certain District 
by Means of the Plane-Table/' is not too difficult to be under- 
taken. All of the apparatus may be home-made. By such 
means the distance across rivers or to inaccessible hilltops may 
readily be calculated. The chief need for accuracy in such work 
is in drawing the lines. If for no other reason, the work should 
be done to demonstrate to the pupils the importance of care and 
neatness in their work. 

The height of buildings, trees, flagpoles, etc., may readily be 
calculated by means of similar triangles. Where one can reach 
the base on horizontal ground, the isosceles right- triangle may 
be used. Make the frame of wood, the equal sides being about 
twelve or fifteen inches in length. At the two oblique angles 
arrange sights for sighting along the hypotenuse, and from the 
upper corner let a light plumb-bob be suspended to enable the 
observer's assistant to tell when the base is horizontal. The ob- 
server holds the instrument to hi-s eye, sighting along the hypote- 
nuse, and advances toward or recedes from the object whose 
height he is measuring, until he just sees the top of it in line 
with his sighting points. He then has only to measure the dis- 
tance from his position to the base of the object. This distance 
plus the height of his eye from the ground is the same as the 
height of the object. 



4:2 SEPTEMBER 

LANGUAGE 

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing 
an exact man. — Bacon's Essay on Studies. 

The motive for the language expression of the whole year 
comes from the needs of the Literary Society, the making of the 
Historical Atlas and the Geographical Atlas, the written home 
work, and the summaries and tests. This is about the order of 
their importance. 

The Literary Society should be able to give opportunity for all 
sorts of literary talent and practice. The aim must not be 
merely to amuse or pass the time. Thoro preparation must be 
demanded by the children themselves. The performances are 
the culmination of the week's work, and represent its spirit. 
Each pupil should be expected to commit to memory at least one 
new selection each month. 

We need, also, a collection of short dialogs for acting out. 
The dozens of such collections I have sampled are not suitable. 
Most of them lack point, and afford very little acting of a kind 
that appeals to children. Even dialogs must be good literature 
in order to be satisfactory. 

For reading in the society the children prefer selections that 
it takes only five to eight minutes to read. They like stories — 
fairy stories or true stories, stories from the nursery, or stories of 
adventure and deeds of blood. 

For essays the most successful topics are personal experiences, 
accounts of excursions, visits to friends, trips on the river and 
into coal mines, etc. Correspondence with other schools, and 
exchanges of products, pictures and school work, are also whole- 
some ways of cooperation. 

Sometimes it is possible to develop a speech -making talent in 
a boy or girl and have really creditable addresses on the occasion 
of special celebrations. The properly managed debate is one of 



LANGUAGE 43 

the best literary exercises that we have. The selection of proper 
subjects is not easy, and depends to some extent on local condi- 
tions. Conscientious preparation on the part of the principal 
debaters is essential for success. 

But it is the miscellaneous debate that is most interesting and 
most profitable for the whole class. I have never seen a whole 
class so thoroly aroused and eager to participate as in the 
miscellaneous debate. Thought is nearer being at white heat 
from interest then than any other time. 

SUBJECTS FOR DEBATE 

1. Resolved, That Magellan was a greater sailor than Co- 

lumbus. 

2. Eesolved, That pupils should share in the government of the 

school. 

3. Resolved, That whispering in school hours is a necessity, 

and should be permitted except in examinations. 

4. Resolved, That the hen that lays the egg has a mother's 

right to the chick that hatches from it. 

5. Resolved, That hope of reward is a better motive than fear 

of punishment. 

6. Resolved, That the more we know the happier we become. 

7. Resolved, That it is never right to get angry. 

8. Resolved, That we were happier when five years old than 

when ten years old. 

9. Resolved, That the pen is mightier than the sword. 

10. Resolved, That city life is better for all practical purposes 

than country life. 

11. Resolved, That women should have the right to vote and 

hold office. 

12. Resolved, That every one should read the daily newspaper. 

13. Resolved, That water is more destructive in its effects than 

fire. 



44 SEPTEMBER 

14. Resolved, That Pennsylvania is a better state to live in 

than New York. 

15. Resolved, That spring is more delightful than autumn. 

16. Resolved, That childhood is the happiest time of life. 

17. Resolved, That girls are more useful than boys about the 

house. 

18. Resolved, That girls cost more than boys for their board 

and keep. 

19. Resolved, That the school year should consist of at least 

nine months. 

20. Resolved, That arithmetic is a more useful study than 

geography. 

21. Resolved, That cooking should be taught in the public 

schools. 

22. Resolved, That boys as well as girls should learn to sew and 

cook. 

23. Resolved, That girls as well as boys should learn to play 

ball, and saw and drive nails. 

24. Resolved, That girls are more orderly than boys because 

they are wiser. 

25. Resolved, That summer is better than winter. 

26. Resolved, That this country should have been called Colum- 

bia in honor of its real discoverer. 

27. Resolved, That the lands belonged to the Indians as Roger 

Williams said. 

28. Resolved, That King Philip waged a righteous war in self- 

defense. 

29. Resolved, That the Monongahela is better than the Alle- 

gheny. 

30. Resolved, That it is better to live in the Old Country than 

in America to-day. 

31. Resolved, That President Roosevelt did right in making a 

treaty with Panama. 



LANGUAGE 45 

32. Resolved, That the railway is more important than the 

steamboat. 

33. Resolved, That De Soto was a greater explorer than La 

Salle. 

34. Resolved, That Portugal did more for the world than Spain 

in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 

35. Resolved, That it would have been better if the French had 

triumphed in the struggle for North America. 

36. Resolved, That the sailor is more to be honored than the 

soldier. 

37. Resolved, That the game of football ought not to be en- 

couraged. Or, Resolved, That baseball is better than 
football. 

38. Resolved, That iron is more serviceable to mankind than 

gold. 

39. Resolved, That the farmer is more useful to society than 

the manufacturer. 

40. Resolved, That the world is growing better. 

41. Resolved, That gunpowder has had more influence on man- 

kind than the printing press. 

42. Resolved, That corporal punishment should be abolished 

in schools. 

43. Resolved, That there is more pleasure in anticipation than 

in realization. 

44. Resolved, That strikes are justifiable. 

45. Resolved, That conscience is a true guide. 

46. Resolved, That Thomas Jefferson did more for the United 

States than Benjamin Franklin. 

47. Resolved, That knowledge is more to be desired than 

wealth. 

48. Resolved, That vertical writing is preferable to the slant. 

49. Resolved, That it is better to live in the twentieth century 

than to have lived in the fifteenth. 



46 SEPTEMBER 

50. Eesolved, That the cat has more sense than the dog. 

51. Eesolved, That paper is more useful than leather. 

52. Eesolved, That wood is more useful than iron. 

53. Eesolved^ That doctors are more useful than lawyers. 

54. Eesolved, That gunpowder is more useful than steam. 

55. Eesolved^ That the microscope reveals more wonders than 

the telescope. 

56. Eesolved, That New York city is the best place in the 

United States in which to live. 

The debate is liable to degenerate into sham formalism, or 
sophistry, unless live issues are chosen, honest convictions ex- 
pressed, and decisions acted on. 

In place of debates speeches may be made on topics previ- 
ously announced. The debate is based on rivalry, and is 
medieval in its origin as a school exercise, but such discussions 
as I mean would not necessarily have two sides at all, and would 
be cooperative in nature. 

TOPICS FOR SPEECHES 

1. How may we protect our song birds and our insectivorous 

birds ? 

2. How may we make our town cleaner, more healthful, and 

more beautiful and attractive ? 

3. Any topic of local interest as, for example (for pupils in 

California, Pa., schools), the opening of the trolley line 
to Pittsburg. 

4. A trip on the Monongahela. 

5. Famous trees. 

6. What our school needs, and how to get it. 

7. Superstitions. 

8. Fifty years ago. 

9. The early vikinss. 



LANGUAGE 47 

The periodical should be the cooperative work of all in the 
society. It should have an editor, with one or more assistants. 
The editor may be responsible for the general arrangement of 
the paper, sorting the items, and putting them in order for 
presentation to the society. He should write an editorial on 
any appropriate theme he chooses, and try to make the paper 
reflect the best judgment of the pupils. One assistant editor 
should review current events and attend to the puzzle corner 
of the paper. There should be an illustrator to cartoon the 
happenings of the week. The stories, jokes, rhymes, advertise- 
ments, and other articles should be contributed by the various 
members of the society. 

The Pichiviclv Portfolio, as described by Louisa M. Alcott in 
•^^ Little Women,^^ and The Bubble, published at Charleroi, Pa., 
by Karl Keffer Jr., may serve as samples of successful amateur 
periodicals. At the St. Louis Exposition more than a score 
of such weeklies and monthlies, edited and printed by school 
children, were exhibited. 

Sometimes the roll is called for responses from the mem- 
bers. This makes a very interesting exercise in which all have 
a share. The responses may be quotations from literature, 
proverbs, facts of current interest, or facts of science, anecdotes, 
conundrums, or puzzles. Special quotations from a particular 
source may be arranged for celebrations or other occasions. 

The literary exercises should be interspersed with singing, 
and with instrumental music, too, if possible. Short dialogs 
with simple but effective acting, and with but few accessories 
for scenery, are very much liked by the children. The rehears- 
als in preparation for these give the teacher an excellent oppor- 
tunity to study the children out of school, and so make it 
possible for him to learn their strong and weak points. 

Indeed, the pleasantest time of the day, a veritable " chil- 
dren's hour," has been the hour after school is over when a score 



48 SEPTEMBER 

or more usually stay for choir practice, rehearsal, to draw on the 
board, to look at stereographs, to read 8t. Nicholas, or The 
Youth's Companion, to play on the piano or to dance, to turn 
somersaults on the horizontal bar, to look through the camera 
obscura, to play bean bags, to get individual help with their 
lessons, to feed the fishes, to water the plants, to work in the 
carpenter shop, to look at the ball game on the athletic field, 
to make up lessons from which they have been absent, to fill out 
the weather record, to have their pictures taken, or simply be- 
cause they like to stay. 

I believe those who stay learn more in that hour than in any 
other hour of the day. Often a pupil will come to me at such 
a time and open his or her mind and heart in the frankest kind 
of way. Difficulties and misunderstandings are not likely to 
persist when softened in so delightful a glow. 

The Historical and Geographical Atlases 

These are to contain any of the written work in history and 
geography that the teacher desires to collect in this way and 
preserve. The pupils will take more pains with work which is 
to be preserved thus, and will keep familiar with it longer. 

For September the Atlases may contain copies of the dialogs 
that have been worked out in collaboration with the children, 
the map that Phemius drew in the sand, Ptolemy's map of the 
world, and papers on topics suggested by the teacher. Such 
topics may be : 

How did men travel in the days of Odysseus? 

What countries unknown to Phemius does Ptolemy's map 
show ? 

How did the Eomans learn about these countries? 

What products and industries did the Eomans have that the 
Greeks of Homer's time did not have? 



LANGUAGE 49 

Write a diary of Leif^s voyage, using Liljencrantz's book for 
suggestions. 

What countries did the Crusaders see? What eastern pro- 
ducts did they bring back with them? 

Drawings without shading should be abundant. Make a pic- 
ture of Phemius giving the little Odysseus his lesson in geogra- 
phy. Show Horatius at the bridge. Make sketches showing the 
Roman ships; the Eoman soldiers; camels. Draw the viking 
" Griffin " ; a crusader ; etc. Tell the whole story of Horatius 
in pictures. 

Grammar 

While correct English is to be learned by practice in hearing, 
speaking, reading and writing the language, correct English 
is to be understood by a reasonable study of English grammar. 
The work for the year is the structure of a simple sentence, in- 
cluding the use of the nine parts of speech, the terms subject, 
predicate, object complement, attribute complement, and objec- 
tive complement, the use of the participle and the infinitive, 
the adjective and adverb phrases, the persons and tenses of the 
verb. 

Do not work with definitions. Teach the children how to 
use the terms. When a pupil can understand a term and use 
it himself correctly, he knows it even if he cannot define it. 
Diagramming will be found very helpful if neatly done from 
the first. 

In analyzing a sentence always begin with the verb, working 
from that to the subject and then the complement if there be 
one. Familiarize the children with the sentence in its simplest 
form, stripped of its modifiers. Teach the proper punctuation 
of the sentence as a sort of simple diagramming of it. Con- 
sider the order of words from the same point of view. 



50 september 

Spelling 

The main stress has to be laid on proper hearing of the word, 
distinct pronunciation of it, with every syllable as clear-cut as 
a new coin from the mint, and then the spelling of it, syllable 
by syllable. The idea that spelling is to be taught by writing 
the words is not wholly correct. Our miserably slovenly Eng- 
lish pronunciation may to some extent be helped by teaching 
proper syllabification and distinct enunciation of each separate 
syllable. Most of the mistakes in spelling come from not know- 
ing exactly what the word is in sound. 

The word-method of teaching reading may be all right if not 
used too long. It is, however, quite time that children in the 
fifth grade should be using syllables and thereby gaining the 
advantages that come to a syllabic language in distinction from 
a language like the Chinese that has a separate character for 
every word. 

Proper training in pronunciation, syllabification, and spell- 
ing syllable by syllable, will prepare the way for the easier under- 
standing of etymology. Many of the common Greek and Latin 
roots may be studied this month and the succeeding, in connec- 
tion with the Greek and Eoman scenes acted out. Those words 
should be taken that connect with scenes in the dialog, e. g., 
schola, pedagogos, tabula, geographia, ludiis, calculus, stylus, 
magister literarum, puer, puella, and the prefixes and suffixes 
coming mainly from the Latin prepositions. 

Children who have not been referring to the dictionary will 
need some practice in arranging words alphabetically. All but 
the dullest will readily pick up the point in a few attempts, but 
some will need to be shown repeatedly and drilled on many 
words before they will be able to find a word reliably and 
promptly. 

It is well to have dictation exercises often for all in the class, 



LANGUAGE 51 

but for some it should be daily. Let one of the abler pupils 
give the dictation to the small group of slower ones. Have the 
children help in looking over and marking the papers. 

Eeading 

I cannot see why a class of children should be made to sit with 
open books, following the text which one pupil reads aloud. 
The best results can come only when the natural stimulus to 
reading is provided, namely, a responsive and interested audi- 
ence. Let there be only one book and that one in the hands 
of the reader. He is then responsible for what is in the book, 
and all will naturally attend to get the sense. 

A fifth-grade pupil should be able to pronounce any new word 
as it is spelled, and hence be able to read uninterruptedly even 
at sight. If any of the new words be accented wrongly, the 
teacher may correct the mistake by telling the pupil which S3dla- 
ble to accent. Similarly, the length of vowel sounds may make 
help necessary. 

Except very rarely, the teacher should not pronounce the word 
for the pupil. There should be daily practice in pronouncing 
according to direction, when told where to place the accent and 
what sound to give the vowels or the consonants. Of course, 
the main daily drill must be given to the division of words into 
syllables, if that has not yet been mastered. 

Pupils need not make any exceptions to the rule to pronounce 
a single consonant with the following vowel; there are no ex- 
ceptions that will bother them much. It is true this method 
of pronunciation is not always followed in the dictionary, be- 
cause the dictionary allows other considerations, such as the 
length of the vowel, the accent, the etymology, etc., to modify 
the rule. But these variations would make the rule na rule at 
all to the pupil. 



52 SEPTEMBER 

The best reading material will be dialogs, or graphic descrip- 
tions in which dialog is frequent. Introduce as much acting as 
possible, both for the sake of the interest and for the sake of 
naturalness of expression. 

THE ARTS 

Music 

Use the pitch-pipe m getting do of the different keys. Let 
the pupils sound do (upper C) first, and then sing down the 
scale and up again, then compare with the pitch of do from the 
pipe. This will gradually result in fixing the pitch of upper C 
permanently so that later the children will be independent of 
the pitch pipe. They should learn how to get do in any key 
from do in the key of C. 

Teach the children to beat time, and also to keep time by 
unobtrusive movements, as of the toes inside the shoe. It will 
be found quite practicable to have the pupil chorister beat time 
with a wand for the singing of the choir. 

For September teach " But the Lord is Mindful of His Own," 
from Mendelssohn's oratorio of " St. Paul," " There's Music in 
the Air," and "Just for To-day." Some of this will have to 
be done by rote, but the wTitten music should be before the 
children, and they should read as far as possible. Take the 
drill exercises from the phrases of the song and variations ; prac- 
tice on the new points of difficulty contained in the songs, viz., 
the divided beat and the slur. 

The pupils are expected to have learned, in the fourth year, 
to write all major scales, but they will need a great deal more 
practice to become thoroly familiar with the scales. Have 
daily drill on the signatures, and teach the signatures as parts 
of one system or series. Have every pupil familiar with the 



THE ARTS 53 

letter series, F, C, G, D, A, E, B, so that he can repeat it back- 
ward (for the flats) or forward (for the sharps) as rapidly and 
as unerringly as the alphabet. Teach the relation of the key- 
note of each key to this series. Give written tests such as the 
following : " I am thinking of a key in which mi is on B ; 
write its signature. I am thinking of a key in which sol is on 
F; write its signature and the notes 5, 5, 6, 5, 3, 2, 3, 1, 7, 
6, 1^6, 5, 4, 5, 3, 1." 

Have considerable writing from dictation, so that the pupils 
will use the technical terms and hear them used, but avoid drill- 
ing them on definitions. 

The pupils need systematic ear-training every day of the year. 
Test their recognition of melodies from hearing the opening 
phrase. In a written score omit several notes ; then sing it over 
or play it over complete and have the pupils add the missing 
notes. Sing or play major and minor exercises for the children 
to distinguish by ear. 

Singing will naturally accompany the opening and closing 
of school each day, will form part of the program of the Liter- 
ary Society meetings, and will be a feature of other special 
occasions. It has been our experience that choir work great- 
ly helps the singing by providing fresh songs for the exercises 
Friday afternoon, by giving more individual work in a smaller 
group, and by providing the opportunity for extra voluntary 
work. 

Every day a few minutes should be given to drill on the 
scale, including intervals of increasing difficulty, modulations, 
singing the syllable names to the written music, and a few min- 
utes to written work and to oral questioning. 

Grive particular attention to distinct pronunciation in singing. 
It will help both the singing and the reading. Immobility of 
the lips is an exceedingly common fault, accompanying flat, 
smothered tones. 



54 SEPTEMBER 

Allow no strained singing. Sweet tones are soft, but may be 
full of sound. 

Most of these directions for September apply to all the suc- 
ceeding months as well, since such drills on intervals, scale, 
terms, distinctness, and ear-training must be continued thruout 
the year. 

Penmanship 

The drill in penmanship will count for more between the ages 
of ten and twelve or thirteen than at any other time. If cor- 
rect habits of posture, holding the pen, and shaping the letters 
with uniformity of height and direction, are now formed, they 
will be likely to last through life. It is folly to spread this 
gymnastic drill thinly over a long period. It must be mastered 
at once by persistent, intensive drill periods. 

Of course this will take several months, but keep at it every 
day. Cet the habits thoroly fixed before relaxing any, either 
in quantity or in quality. Later it will do to depend for prac- 
tice on the necessary written work of the other periods. Now 
is the time for practice on the double-ruled paper to gain uni- 
formity in the height of letters. 

Avoid having the capitals made of the same shape as the 
small letters, and do not permit the Joining of capitals to the 
small letters in writing. This leads to neglect and indifference 
in the matter of capitalization. Unruled tablets should be used 
to get the children used to writing without lines. 

Drawing and Painting 

Everyone can learn to draw. Practice is all that is required. 
If one got as much practice in drawing as he gets in talking, he 
would draw as readily as he talks. Drawing is one of the great 
means of expression, and should be developed in each pupil for 
the purpose of expression. Eapid sketching should be the chief 



THE ARTS 55 

form of drawing in school. It should supplement the language 
work in every subject — geography, history, arithmetic, nature 
study, and literature. The pupils should answer questions by 
drawing as much as by talking. 

Should there be a separate drawing period? Yes. Just as 
there should be a separate language period, so there should be 
a separate drawing period, in which the technique receives sys- 
tematic attention. But success in teaching drawing does not 
depend on technique one-tenth so much as it depends on prac- 
tice. If pupils are not drawing every day in every period and 
out of school from liking, they will not have practice enough 
to form the drawing habit. 

Aim at simplicity in representation by using the very fewest 
lines possible. Avoid shading until form is well mastered. 
Study Phil May^s Sketch Book, Augsburg's Drawing Books, 
J. Liberty Tadd's great book on " New Methods in Education.'^ 

Do not waste time in drawing cubes and spheres or other 
type solids. Draw everything you want to draw. Form the 
habit of wanting to draw. Always have paper and pencil with 
you and sketch while waiting for a train, while resting on a 
picnic, while riding or even while walking, while studying, and 
above all while teaching. Talk and draw at the same time and 
get your pupils to do this. Just as talking has developed 
thought, so drawing, when practiced sufficiently, will develop 
observation. 

Making 

While the interest in birds is keenest, thru the appreciation 
of their help in destroying insects, the children should begin to 
make bird-houses for the coming spring. Let the ants' nest for 
special use in February be prepared now and the ant colony 
settled. 

Each pupil should make a clock face with movable hands to 



56 



SEPTEMBER 



use in learning to tell time readily in the problems of length 
of day and length of night, difference of time, and addition of 
time. 

Fraction squares, such as those on page 16G of Southworth- 
Stone Arithmetic, Book I, should be drawn large. 

The map that Phemius drew in the sand should be drawn 
on the ground in an open-air session of the geography class. 

Have the children make a small viking ship with carved prow 
and with rigging as shown in the pictures in the history books. 

Numerous utensils to be used in the acting out of " The Golden 
Age," " Julius Caesar," and " The Thrall of Lief the Lucky " 
will be needed. 



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AFTER SCHOOL 





NATURE STUDY 

October is one of the best months of the 
year in which to study trees. Interest is at- 
tracted to them by their falling leaves, their 
changing hues, the ripening nuts, the uncovered nests, and the 
preparation for winter. It is these autumn aspects of trees 
that we propose to study in October. 

Lead children to appreciate and love trees. Trees are of uni- 
versal importance and interest. They exert an influence of 
untold value, and are generally available for study in every 
locality. We are indebted to them in numberless ways for many 
of the comforts and luxuries of life. The varied forms and 
colors have a great attraction for children, and they should be 
taught to know and love the trees. 

Make a large map of your neighborhood, showing streets, 
houses, farms, fields, roads, lanes, creeks, etc.; then have all 
the trees of the neighborhood charted on the map. Different 
colors may be used to indicate different kinds of trees. The 
leaves will be the readiest means of identifying the species, and 
will be brought in daily by the pupils. The teacher should lead 

57 



58 OCTOBER 

the pupils to associate other characteristics of bark, branching, 
and buds with the leaves, so that .as the leaves fall the trees may 
still be identified. 

]Jo not depend on word descriptions, but have leaves and 
branching so well drawn that the characteristics show of them- 
selves. Bring in leafless branches of different trees and have 
the pupils identify them. These forms must become so familiar 
to the pupils that characteristic leaves, branching, bark, and 
buds of any of the common species of native trees can be readily 
drawn from memory. The following books will be found use- 
ful: 

Among Green Trees, Julia Ellen Rogers, A. W. Mumford, Chicago. 

Trees of the Northern 

United States, Austin C. Apgar, American Book Co. 

Our Native Trees, Harriet L. Keeler, Scribner. 

The Trees of Northeast- 
ern America, _ Chas. S. Newhall, Putnams. 

Familiar Trees and their 

Leaves, F. Schuyler Mathews, D. Appleton & Co. 

A Primer of Forestry, Gifford Pinchot, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 

It may also be well to make a more detailed study of a par- 
ticular kind of tree, or even of one individual tree at the corner 
of the schoolhouse. We study the lower animals and plants 
too much as general notions instead of as individual existences. 
Thompson-Seton and William J. Long have done well to show 
us the individuality of anim^als. Every lover of horses, dogs 
or birds knows that the animals differ, and that it is the indi- 
vidual characteristics that attract or repel interest and friend- 
ship. 

Should not we similarly try to individualize the life of some 
particular oak tree, for instance, in order the more fully to study 
its concrete life ? Name the tree, as has been done with several 
of the Big Trees of California, e. g., Wawonah, .Grizzly Giant, 
etc. Collect data for its biography ; trace the scars of its wounds 
from frost, from claws, from axes, from insects, from lightning; 
note the postures of the branches from the winds of years ; trace 



NATURE STUDY 59 

its chronicle of years in the annual leaf scars on its branches; 
test its appetite and thirst with fertilizers and moisture supply; 
note its different branching and trace the causes; take its meas- 
urements and record its growth. 

Note the animal life that it supports — insects, birds, squir- 
rels. Note how this animal life reacts on the life of the tree. 
The bird inhabitants have come for the insects which would 
have devoured the tree. The squirrels eat some nuts, but store 
up others of which some will germinate and thus spread the 
descendants of the tree. 

Note its seed-years. 

Having made friends with the tree, keep up your speaking 
acquaintance thru succeeding years. Help to spread its progeny 
by planting the acorns and guarding and shielding the young 
seedlings. Tree-planting is educational. Eead Thompson- 
Seton's " Stories on the Tree Trunks,^^ in Country Life in 
America for May, 1904. See, also, " How to Draw a Tree,'' 
Hid; H. Marshall Ward's " The Oak,'' D. Appleton & Co., pub- 
lishers ; and " The Population of an Old Pear Tree," published 
by Macmillan. 

The school garden will be ending its fruitage for the season. 
The flowers will in some cases need to be taken up for the winter 
and placed in the window-gardens in the schoolrooms. 

Weather Record 

If the children have been tracing the progress of High and 
Low across the country on their blank weather maps (see p. 39), 
they will now be ready to see why the winds blow toward the 
Low and away from the High. They should mark the wind 
directions by means of small arrows on their blank maps and 
realize the whirling motion centering about each High and Low. 

By comparison of the prevailing wind directions on successive 



60 OCTOBER 

days at any one place the regular causes for the usual changes 
in the wind directions may be made clear. Each day the pupils 
should be drilled to think of the position of High and Low in 
direction and distance from home, and to point in the direction, 
and state the distance and locality. 

In connection with the wind it would be well to study the 
subject of ventilation, which is governed by precisely the same 
principles. Draw a plan of the room and chart all the chief 
currents, drafts and vents, and hang thermometers in different 
places to record the temperature of the air. It will be readily 
possible to trace the causes of the air movements. 

Teach the importance of full, deep breathing. Shallow 
breathers only half live. Have breathing exercises every day, 
till the habit of deep breathing is formed. Test progress with 
the home-made lung tester. 

GEOGRAPHY 

We study the trade routes of the Middle Ages to India and 
the East. The possibility of reaching India by other routes 
and the necessity of finding another route in the fifteenth cen- 
tury should be discussed on the basis of Ptolemy^s Map of the 
World. The question of whether a route around Africa was 
feasible should be discussed with fifteenth century arguments 
and difficulties in mind. 

This is the place to treat the proofs that the earth is round. 
Take them historically. Do not stuff the children nor allow 
them to prejudge the Avhole matter by assuming that the world 
is round and therefore that it requires no proof — that it was 
absurd for any person ever to doubt that it was round. 

With the rotundity of the earth in mind the subject of lati- 
tude and longitude will be clearer, and it will in its turn re- 
inforce the conception of the roundness of the earth. Have a 



GEOGRAPHY 61 

good-sized rubber ball for each pupil, and let the joint between 
the two halves represent the equator. Meridians and parallels 
may be drawn with lead pencil. Then mark the starting merid- 
ian and locate coast points in Europe and Africa and India by 
means of their latitude and longitude. Then draw the coast 
line. Now locate the route around Africa and describe it in 
terms of latitude and longitude. 

Make a simple astrolabe by suspending a plumb-bob from the 
circle center of a quadrant graduated to degrees. Sight along 
the straight edge and take the reading in degrees for the alti- 
tude. In this way take the altitude of the North Star. This 
will be the same as the latitude of the place of observation. 

The calculation of longitude can be readily illustrated by set- 
ting a watch to G-reenwich time and then taking an observation 
on the sun to determine when it crosses the meridian. Multiply 
the time past noon at Greenwich by fifteen and you will obtain 
the longitude of the point of observation in degrees, minutes, 
and seconds. 

In the fifteenth century it was the custom of navigators to 
sail due north or south to the parallel of their proposed destina- 
tion and then shape their course directly east or west. This is 
why Columbus sailed to the Canaries in 1492, and then due west 
for Chipangu. - _„ 

Now is the time for a full and painstaking comparison be- 
tween the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres. As we go 
north from the equator the maximal altitude of the sun above 
the horizon becomes less, and noon shadows become longer and 
longer; the climate grows cooler; the variation in the length 
of the days from summer to winter becomes greater; the sun 
rises farther and farther to the north of east in June; the dis- 
tinction of the four seasons becomes gradually greater; we pass 
from a tropical region of calms to a region of trade winds, then 
to the horse latitudes in the Cilms of Cancer, then to the tem- 



iy^ 



OCTOBEli 




THE HEMISPHERE MODEL IN THE NORTH CORNER 



perate region of prevailing westerlies, and finally reach the 
frigid region of occasional northeasterlies. 

Trace the corresponding changes as we go southward from 
the equatorial heat belt. What date is it now in South Africa ? 
What season is it there? What season will it be there at Christ- 
mas time ? At Easter ? Make out a calendar of the seasons for 
the Cape of Good Hope. Compare the harvest of the regions 
in the Northern Hemisphere with the harvests of the regions in 
the Southern Hemisphere for the same dates. For the purpose 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 63 

consult the Monthly Harvest Calendar in the Little Chronicle. 
Eecall the calendar of the world's harvests from month to 
month in " The Fourth School Year/' 

In what direction does the shadow of the sun extend here at 
home in the morning, at noon, at evening? In what direction 
does the shadow of the sun extend in South Africa in the morn- 
ing, at noon, at evening? Draw the Southern Hemisphere on 
the outside of a wooden butter bowl, keeping the South Pole 
uppermost and resting the rim (the equator) on the table. Get 
used to having the south end of the world uppermost. Many 
of the very difficulties the pupils will thus meet and understand 
are those that confused the sailors, geographers, ■ and monks of 
the time of Prince Henry and Columbus. 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

Read the Sinbad stories to get the way the people of Europe 
regarded India and the East. These stories give in the main 
a true picture of life in the East. Where they are exaggerations 
they are true to the spirit of eastern fancy, but even the roc 
and the mares and the river that flows inland are almost literally 
true. The Old Man of the Sea is a good temperance lesson. 
Marco Polo found the Valley of Diamonds, and was struck on 
the head by a cocoanut thrown by a monkey in the top of a 
palm-tree. 

Study the travels of Marco Polo with a good deal of detail, 
using Towle's or Yule's Marco Polo or some equally full and 
interesting account. On a large rubber ball draw the known 
world of the thirteenth century and mark in heavy line the 
route of Marco Polo to Cambaluc, his journeys as ambassador 
of the Great Khan, and his homeward route. He was one of 
the greatest travelers of all time. His book " contributed more 



64 OCTOBER 

new facts toward a knowledge of the earth's surface than any 
book that had ever been written before/' * 

The Eeturn of Marco Polo in 1295 A. D. has been acted out 
in somewhat the following form by fifth-grade pupils : 

SCENE I 

The exterior of a house in Venice. Marco Polo, his Father, 
and Uncle, in Chinese garb, approach and, after much loohing 
ahout, begin to hioch at the door of a house. 

Marco. This does not look much like the place in which we 
lived twenty-four years ago. That shop did not use to be there. 

Nicolo. No, that is so. Are we not in the wrong street? Is 
this San Giovanni ? Let us inquire in this shop. 

Maffeo. I would go in and ask, but I am afraid I have forgot- 
ten my Italiano. — Oh, here comes a woman. It will be easier 
to ask her. [As a ivoman passes by] Signorina, can you tell 
us where Casa Polo is? 

Woman. Indeed, signer, yonder is Casa Polo — next to Casa 
Bianca. 

Nicolo. Where did Messer Nicolo Polo use to live? 

Wo^nan. Young Messer Nicolo has always lived in yonder 
house, signer. 

[The woman passes on. Marco Icnocl^s again. The door of 
the house is opened and a girl puts her head out.'] 

Nicolo. Ah, is this Casa Polo? 

Tessa. Yes, Signer Polo lives here. 

Nicolo. Present our compliments and tell him that Maffeo 
Polo, Nicolo Polo, and Marco Polo are returned to greet him. 

Tessa. Alas, signore, Messer Maffeo went on a hunting trip 
this morning and will be away the rest of the week. Messer 

* Fiske's " Discovery of America," Vol. I, Chap. III. 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 65 

Mcolo and the bambino are at home. I might like your joke 
better if I understood it. 

Marco. We are not joking. We left home twenty-four years 
ago to travel to Cathay, and have now returned. This is our 
home. 

Tessa. Wait, I'll call the butler. [Tlieij enter the house. 

SCENE II 

Interior courtyard of Casa Polo. Tessa opens the door and 
admits the travelers. From the other side of the piazza come 
Beatrice with her baby, several old women, and the butler. 
Presently, Young Nicolo enters. 

Marco. [Addressing the butler.'] Do you know Nicolo Polo ? 
Maffeo Polo, and Marco Polo? 

Butler. [Gruffly] Yes, I know them well. Messer Nicolo 
is just coming out of yonder doorway. Messer Maifeo is off on 
a hunt in the forest of Cortuna, and Marco — bless his heart! 
— that is the heir of the Polos over there in his mother's arms. 

Nicolo. [Laughing] Is it I coming out of that doorway? 
Mark, there are two of you, too; we're duplicated! [Address- 
ing Beatrice] Pardon me, signora mia, may I ask your name ? 

Beatrice. [As the baby begins to cry] Hush, Mark, the 
Chinesers won't hurt you. Your grandpa used to live with them. 
[Looking up] Signor, my name is Beatrice Polo. 

Nicolo. That was your mother's name, Marco. 

Maffeo. Brother, this is stranger than Cathay. Who is the 
father of that darling bambino ? 

Young Nicolo. [Stepping foriuard] I am, signor. 

Maffeo. What is your father's name? 

Young Nicolo. Maffeo Polo. 

Nicolo. Are not any of you old enough to remember the 



66 



OCTOBER 



Polos who twent3^-four years ago set out from here to travel to 
far Cathay ? 

[An old ivoman elbows her tuay forward and then stands, 
ivith her arms akimho, staring at the strangers^] 



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MARCO POLO S RETURN TO VENICE SCENE I 



Old Woman. I remember them well, but I do not know you. 
The Polos were killed in Cathay a dozen years ago. 

Butler. Pooh ! pooh ! we know you not ! You are a set of 
impostors. You must leave this house. 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 67 

Marco. Hold on ! Father, I believe this signor is my brother 
Maifeo's son, and that bambino is your great-grandchild. 

Maffeo. Then, it is my nephew that is hunting in Cortuna? 

Nicolo. [To Young Nicolo and Beatrice] And you are 
my grandchildren. 

[Young Nioolo and Beatrice laugh as tho they did not he- 
lieve it.^ 

Young Nicolo. Well, it may be so ; but we have never seen 
you before. Tell us of your travels; that will prove your story. 

Nicolo. Very well, good people, we shall soon persuade you 
then. We will tell our story. 

[The company find seats.'] 

Maffeo. We set out from Venice one bright morning in April, 
1271, little thinking how long it would be before we saw home 
again. We went by ship to Acre in the Holy Land, thence by 
camels overland to Bagdad, and took ship at Bussora, whence 
Sinbad the Sailor used to sail on his famous voyages. In a 
storm our ship was damaged and we put in at Hormuz at the 
mouth of the Persian Gulf. From here we traveled slowly 
overland thru Persia, and thence eastward thru Tartary and 
the Great Desert of Lop into northeastern Cathay. 

Young Nicolo. Had you not been there once before? Did 
the emperor recognize 3^ou from your former visit? 

Nicolo. He did, indeed; he was expecting us. When we 
were within three days' journey of the royal palace, we stopped 
and sent forward a messenger to Kublai Khan, to inform him 
of our coming, and then we waited there for his reply. Within 
a week our messenger returned with a large cavalcade sent by 
the Khan to escort us to his palace. We hastened on our way, 
and on the third day came to the royal hunting-grounds and 
saw the palace in the distance. A great multitude of horsemen 
were coming toward us, and soon we saw among them a huge 
elephant on whose back appeared a glittering canopy of silk and 



68 OCTOBER 

gold. The Great Khan himself was coming out to welcome us. 
" Good Venetians/^ he said, " I am filled with joy to see you. 
Welcome back to Cathay. You have kept your promise to re- 
turn.^' 

Marco. But he had not seen me before, and he asked my 
father who I was. " Sire/^ replied my father, " he is your 
majesty's servant, my son.'^ After that the Khan welcomed me 
cordially. 

Nicolo. Yes, Kublai Khan valued the services of my son 
Marco more than those of any other ambassador at his court. 

Beatrice. How long did it take you to learn Chinese? 

Marco. Oh, father and uncle had learned it on their former 
visit. I picked it up in two or three months so that I could 
talk it a little and read some. See, this is the way they write 
[Shows looks and writes on hoard']. These are their figures 
[Writing them down]. 

[A short Chinese verse may he recited as a sample of the 
language.] 

Young Nicolo. I believe what you are telling me, uncle, more 
from your manner than from the facts I have heard. Grand- 
father, pardon me for not welcoming you at first more heartily 
to your own house. [They emhrace.] 

Fanita. Have you brought with you any of those silks and 
diamonds that Sinbad tells us about ? 

Maffeo. Yes, cara mia, we have trunks full of them. But 
good folks, I propose that we invite our old-time friends to a 
banquet to-morrow evening to celebrate our home-coming, and 
then we can convince them all at once that we speak truth. 

Nicolo. That would be well. 

Young Nicolo. With all my heart. Everything we can do 
shall be cheerfully done for our most illustrious merchant 
princes. [To the hutler] Show these signors to the guest 
chambers and give them every attention. 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 69 



SCENE III 



Banquet Hall of Casa Polo. Enter Nicolo, loith Beatrice 
on his arm; Duke Gratiano with Fanita; Marco with Julia; 
Count Cristo tvith Margherita ; Maffeo with Donna Torza : 
Lorenzo Matthea luith Maria dei Conti; Young Nicolo 
ivith the Duchess of Urbino. 

Beatrice. Be seated, friends. 

Gratiano. I do declare, noble Nicole, I would never have 
believed that it was you come back to Venice, after twenty-four 
years of absence if you had not been able to tell me all about 
that day twenty-six years ago when you had just returned from 
your former journey. 

Margherita. My dear signer, you are changed entirely. Ex- 
cuse me for saying it, but. Signer Polo, you have become half 
Chinese. That pigtail looks like the genuine article. You 
used to have a fine long beard. You have a foreign accent, and 
your words do not sound like good Italian any more. Signer, 
can you say, " 11, rege " ? 

Nicolo. II lege. [The company laugh.'] 

Margherita. Yes ! 

Nicolo. Is not that natulul? We thlee have spokee the 
dozen diffelent languages of Asia in the countlies we have lived 
in. We have heard no Italiano since we left Jelusalem, twenty- 
four years ago last month. 

Cristo. How long did it take you to return from Cambaluc, 
Messer Polo? 

Maffeo. We have been thlee years on the way. We coasted 
all along the eastern and southern shore of Asia. 

Gratiano. Then is Ptolemy's map of the world wrong? Are 
you sure of the route you returned by ? 

Cristo. I hesitate to believe that the great Ptolemy, who has 
been followed for a thousand years, can be wrong. 



70 OCTOBER 

Marco. [Rising to addr-ess them^ There can be no doubt of 
an ocean sea to the east of Cathay. [Shows map and points 
out on it the route they came.^^ The Chinese call this sea the 
Sea of Chin. Chipangu lies five hundred miles off the coast of 
Catha}^, in that broad ocean. It has immense riches in gold. 
The Mikado's palace is paved with bricks of shining gold, two 
fingers' breadth in thickness. The Spice Islands lie to the 
southeast and are of surpassing wealth, producing pepper, nut- 
megs, cubebs, cloves, and spikenard, and all other kinds of 
spices. [He continues to point out the route.'] The annual 
revenues of the G-reat Khan are seventy-five to one hundred mil- 
lions in gold. But the Mikado of Chipangu has never counted 
the millions of his wealth. 

Julia. Well, well, " Marco Millions,'' did not the Great Khan 
part with you reluctantly? I suppose you were so useful to liini 
that he gave you of his millions. 

Nicolo. He would not have let us go at all, if the royal bride 
for the Khan of Persia had not been needing safe escort to her 
new home. There was war in the Avest of Cathay, and so Coca- 
chin could not travel overland, but had to go by sea. Kublai 
Khan knew of our skill with ships, and intrusted her to us. 
Marco had already sailed thru the Indian Ocean on one of his 
embassies for the Great Khan. 

Margherita. So he parted with you in order that he might 
send Cocachin safely to her intended husband. 

Marco. Yes. When we arrived in the Persian Gulf, how- 
ever, we learned that the old King of Persia was dead. We 
had never dreamed of that possibility, and we did not know 
what to do. 

Fanita. What did you do? You might have brought her 
along home and we could have adopted her into the family. 

* See Chapter XIV in " Towle's Marco Polo," and improvise here. The guests 
should ask questions freely for the Polos to answer. 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 71 

Nicolo. Oh, you do not know the pride of an eastern prin- 
cess ! The new king, Casan, who succeeded the dead Khan, was 
already looking for a bride, and the young people quickly ar- 
ranged the matter by becoming engaged. So we were relieved, 
and made our way home. 

Beatrice. I think the ladies might now withdraw and leave 
the gentlemen to themselves. [Ladies go out.] 

Nicolo. [As Marco starts for the doo7'] Bring in the bag- 
gage, Mark. [Exit Marco. Returns ivitli several 'bundles.'] 

Nicolo. [After opening up a handle] Now, friends, these 
rich clothes that we have brought — 

Gratiano. [Interrupting] They look like old duds, fit for 
the rag-picker. 

Nicolo. They may seem so outwardly. [Laughs and looks 
at Marco toith a tvinh, and proceeds to rip open the seams and 
to bring forth diamonds, rubies, etc.] 

Gratiano. [Examining the jewels as they are laid out on the 
table] Oh, my eyes! where did you get such treasures? By 
San Marco ! I have never before seen such stones in Venice ! 

Nicolo. [Continuing to take ont more brilliants and gold 
ornaments] There have never before been such in Europe. 

Cristo. Santa Maria! that diamond must be worth twenty 
thousand pounds sterling at least. Is it not ? 

Maffeo. Fifty thousand pounds, my good friend. The Great 
Khan gave Marco that diamond for performing a most difficult 
mission in the northern part of the Empire. 

Lorenzo. What is there north of Cathay? What sort of a 
place is it? 

Marco. They call it the Land of Darkness. Sometimes the 
merchants speak of it as the Land of Furs. The trade is chiefly 
in furs. It is a cold, bleak country. 

Young Nicolo. Do the Chinamen know more about anything 
than we do ? Were you able to learn anything from them ? 



72 OCTOBER 

Marco. Yes, indeed ; for one thing, they burn a kind of black 
stone for fuel, instead of wood. 

Nicolo. In directing their junks, they make use of a magnetic 
needle that they have mounted in a box. This needle always 
points north. Here I have one that I brought with me. We 
used this needle on the voyage home. [He shows the compass 
and explains it.^ 

[Here let the actors improvise questions and answers.~\ 

Nicolo. They have a wonderful powder, too, that explodes 
fearfully, with awful force. They declare they invented it many, 
many years ago. They use it for fireworks. They send up sky- 
rockets [Imitates the noise of a ski/rocket whizzing upward and 
tlien explodijig and falling'] that explode in the air like shooting 
stars. 

[^¥hile the men are talking about the compass afid gunpowder, 
Tessa slips in and carries out the old coats that are lying in a 
heap on the floor.'] 

Maffeo. Kublai Khan^s grandfather, Jenghiz Khan, who led 
the Mongolian invasion of Cathay, in the early part of this cen- 
tury, used this explosive powder to fire great guns in battle with 
the Chinese. One of his big guns would throw an iron ball 
weighing a pound a distance of over a mile. It was one means 
of his success. He conquered all Cathay and established his 
dynasty on the throne of the Flowery Kingdom. 

Marco. [Noticing that the coats are missing] Why, father, 
where are our diamonds and all our millions ? Who took those 
coats? [He rushes out, calling thru the house. Presently he 
returns with Tessa and the ladies.] 

Tessa. Why, an old ragman, Gobbo, came along just now 
and asked if we had any old rags to sell. I thought of those 
old rags of coats you had thrown on the floor. I heard you say 
you were rich; and I thought I would just get rid of the old 
truck at once. It would onlv have bred moths and been in the 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 73 

way, as you would never have worn those rags any more; Gobbo 
gave me twenty-five centesimi for the whole lot. Mighty glad 
I was to be rid of it all, too. 

Cristo, Gratiano and Young Nicolo. [Talking all at once and 
crowding ai^ound Tessa'] You have lost millions! There were 
diamonds in those rags ! The wealth of the Polos was sewed 
up in those old duds ! Can^t you call Gobbo back ? Do not you 
know where the fellow^s shop is? [Marco again rushes out.] 

Nicolo. [Calmly] Good friends ! Sweet friends ! There 
is no need of anxiety. We have still other millions in the other 
boxes. 

The Company. What marvelous wealth ! 

Marco. [Returning] I cannot see any sign of Gobbo. Per- 
chance he will never return. 

Young Nicolo. To-morrow, Tessa, you must take your stand 
on the Eialto, over the Grand Canal, and watch the crowd as 
they go across. If old Gobbo should pass by, you must recog- 
nize those coats and buy them back from him. Perhaps he will 
not yet have found the jewels sewed up in the lining. 

Maffeo. We have saved a few millions here, and have a dozen 
more boxes of silks and rubies. The wealth of the East is not 
exhausted. 

Gratiano. You have certainly proved that you are the Polos 
of Venice, the greatest merchant travelers of the world. 

The Company. Long life to Messer Nicolo, Messer Maffeo 
and Messer Marco Polo ! [Exeunt all but Nicolo.] 

Piccolo. [Rushing m] I know Gobbo. I saw him on the 
corner of San Marco just now. He had those old clothes with 
him. I will go and buy them back. Give me a lira. [He gets 
it and departs. Exit Nicolo.] 

Treat briefly the onward career of the beastly Turk after the 
times of the Crusades down to the capture of Constantinople 



74 



OCTOBER 



in 1453. Eealize the result as they strangled the trade by the 
Black Sea Eoute, and swept on thru Syria and down toward 
Egypt, cutting off access to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. 
Moreover, the eastern waters of the Mediterranean Sea began to 
swarm with Turkish corsairs that plundered and murdered 
whenever they came up with a Christian merchantman. 

The more completely the eastern Mediterranean was thus 




THE COUNCIL OF SALAMANCA 



closed to the trade with India, the stronger grew the impulse to 
find "an outside route to the Indies." The first attempt was 
naturally made by Portugal by way of the route around Africa. 
Contrast the continental theory of Ptolemy with the oceanic tlie- 
ory of Mela. (See maps in Fiske's *^^ School History of the 
United States," pp. 24, 25.) Which was the hopeful theory? 
Tell of the " fiery zone " and the imagined impossibility of 
crossing it; the fancied danger of sailing "down-hill"; the 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 75 

superstitions fears of the " gorgons and hydras and chimseras 
dire " inhabiting the unexplored regions ; the shuddering dread 
with which the Sea of Darkness and the edge of the world were 
regarded. Contrast briefly the Mediterranean Period in history 
with the Atlantic Period that began with Prince Henry and in- 
volved all the Atlantic nations of Europe. 

Give the main epochs of Prince Henry's life; the capture of 
Ceuta; expeditions to the Guinea coast for gold; visions of an 
ocean route to India. His motives were desire for trade, exten- 
sion of Portugal's dominion, and the converting of the heathen 
races. He refused all offers of military honors, and retired to 
the lonely and barren rock of Sagres, there, on the supposed most 
western corner of Europe, to build an astronomical observatory, 
and to gather about him men com.petent to teach and eager to 
learn the mysteries of map-making and the art of navigation. 
Follow the Portuguese discoveries by the map in Fi she's " Dis- 
covery of America" (Vol. I, Chap. IV). 

The voyage of Dias brought the work of Prince Henry to a 
glorious climax at the same time that it proved the desirability 
of a shorter route.' On the first ship that doubled the Cape of 
Good Hope was Bartholomew Columbus. Christopher Colum- 
bus had been on other voyages along the African Coast. It was 
his genius and his daring that first put to a test the theory of 
the roundness of the earth and realized the dream of sailing 
west to reach the east. 

Take George Lansing Eaymond's drama of " Columbus " as 
the material for the life of the great discoverer. It would be 
well to saturate the children with the spirit of this play every 
(lay for three or four weeks. Subordinate everything else for the 
time being to Columbus. The home life of Columbus, his diffi- 
culties in securing help, the Council of Salamanca, the scene 
at La Eabida, the preparations at Palos and the departure, the 
mutiny, the midnight discovery of land and the morning ap- 



76 OCTOBER 

proach to it, the return home and reception at the court, the 
egg story, Columbus in chains in Hispaniola, and his death in 
Spain, are here told in the live form of dialog and acting. 

Columbus on his second voyage, Pinzon with Americus Ves- 
pueius, and Cabot on the Labrador coast found this " Asia " 
very different from the Asia described by Marco Polo. The 
western route failed to reach the riches of India, altho nobody, 
apparently, thought that Asia had not been reached. 

Meanwhile the Portuguese took heart again and tried their 
route. Vasco da Gama started from Lisbon in 1497, sailed 
around the Cape of Good Hope to the Coast of Hindustan, and 
returned in the summer of 1499, with his ships laden with the 
genuine Sinbad articles — pepper and spices, rubies and dia- 
monds, emeralds, silks and satins, ivory and bronzes. 

Columbus was discredited, and returned to seek for a strait 
thru from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. If Colum- 
bus could have known that there was a continuous continent of 
which he had never heard stretching from the frigid north to 
the frigid south, and that he was still farther from India than 
the entire length of the Portuguese route around Africa, what 
bitter disappointment would have been added to his last days! 

NUMBER 

The work just outlined makes necessary the study of the 
sphere. Learn the dimensions of the earth and compare them 
with Toscanelli's estimates. Calculate the earth's circumfer- 
ence, the length of the quadrant from the pole to the equator, 
the length of a degree in miles on a meridian, the area of the 
earth's surface, etc. Find why the length of a degree on a par- 
allel grows less as we approach the poles. Show the method of 
reckoning longitude by chronometer time of Greenwich (see 
p. 61). 



NUMBER 77 

Nearly all the difficulties of longitude and time may be over- 
come by the use of demonstration material. Make for use in 
your classroom such a piece of apparatus as that shown in the 
figure on page 79. 

The central part, consisting of the northern hemisphere with 
a circular disk of cardboard attached to it, is movable and can 
be turned from right to left to represent the earth's rotation 
from west to east. The immovable ring beyond the outer mar- 
gin of this disk is divided into twenty-four equal parts corre- 
sponding to the twenty-four hours of the day. The arrow at the 
top of the chart shows the direction of the sun's rays and points 
to the noon hour. The afternoon hours follow to the left, and 
the evening hours extend below, where the darker night sky is 
seen with the Great Dipper on the left and the crescent moon on 
the right. Midnight is represented at the bottom of the chart 
and is followed by the early morning and forenoon hours upward 
to XII again. The purpose of the circular disk of cardboard 
attached to the wooden hemisphere in the center is simply to 
afford space on which to write the geographical names large 
enough to be seen across the room. The names are written on 
the radiating lines extending from the meridians of the places 
on the hemisphere. The black line extending vertically across 
the hemisphere represents the prime meridian of Greenwich. 
The somewhat irregular dotted line shows the position of the 
international date line. 

The photograph shows the apparatus set for noon at Green- 
wich. The local time of every other place can be read off by 
simply following its meridian down to the equator on the wooden 
hemisphere and outward on the cardboard disk to the ring of the 
hours. It is, however, more than a calculating machine, for it 
also shows the reason for its answer. The world really turns 
thru the hours, as the model turns thru its hour circle. If our 
clock faces were arranged with twenty-four hours instead of 



78 OCTOBER 

twelve^ we should have a good model of the daily motion of the 
earth constantly before ns. The changing position of the hour 
hand would then correspond to the changing direction of the 
vertical position of a man during every portion of the twenty- 
four hours. 

What time is it at Bagdad^ when it is half-past nine o'clock 
in the morning at Philadelphia? Turn the hemisphere from 
right to left until the meridian of Philadelphia is brought oppo> 
site to 9 :30 a. m. By looking now at the meridian of Bagdad 
we see it is opposite 5 :30 p. m. Of course we have not only the 
local time at Bagdad before us, but we can equally well read off 
the time it is at any other place at that moment. For instance, 
it is ten minutes after midnight in the morning of the following 
day at Melbourne. 

The international date line is marked on the wooden hemi- 
sphere. As the hemisphere turns from west to east all meridians 
are in succession brought opposite the hour of midnight at the 
bottom of the chart. The day begins first at the international 
date line, and begins later and later for all other meridians in 
proportion to their distance west from the 180th. The less their 
longitude east or the greater their longitude west, the later does 
the day begin. The new century began first, therefore, in 
that place which is nearest to the international date line but 
west of it. In the northern hemisphere this place is the eastern 
extremity of Siberia, but the Eussians use the Julian calendar 
and are therefore behind. In the southern hemisphere the cen- 
tury began first on the Friendly Islands, which are included in 
the Australian day. As some of them are as much as 174 de- 
grees west longitude, January 1st began twenty-four minutes 
sooner there than at the meridian of 180 degrees, or, seventeen 
hours and twenty-four minutes before the century began at 
Philadelphia, Pa. The position of the international date line 
is marked on the movable disk by a star ( * ) and the letter " A " 



r 



B 



n P.M. 



in- 



I 



»iV 



c^tct-rr^ 



iZL 



.^K 

i^ 



Y 



^ 



A.M. 



I 1 a 



I. ■ 




2 a 



NJQ HT 



1 



.l;-\ 



,v' 



'^"^ 



m. 



New <iRUA'i3 



H 



I 



C/ 



7-^ 






t 



1 



1 



LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE APPARATUS 



80 OCTOBER 

(antipodes). As this point turns past the hour of midnight, 
we have represented before us between this point (A) and the 
hour of XII (at the botton of the chart) all those places on the 
earth that already have the new day; whereas all the remain- 
ing meridians have still the previous day. 

The daily motion of the earth on its axis is represented by the 
complete rotation of the hemisphere from west to east. 

The use of the piece of apparatus in class has still further 
impressed me with the importance of actual models in teaching 
the fundamental conceptions of geography. The use of flat 
maps is very objectionable ; and the use of Mercator's Projection 
is calculated to instill wrong conceptions that will never be over- 
come. The chief difficulties come from our awkward and dis- 
torted diagrams, or, worse still, from teaching by mere words. 
Sense-impression is the beginning of all knowledge. 

On the large globe, fifty inches in diameter, calculate the 
scale (one hundred and sixty miles to the inch). Now, with 
tape line, measure distances on ocean routes in inches and cal- 
culate distances in miles, as, for example, from Lisbon to Cape 
Bojador, to the Cape of Good Hope, to Calcutta; from Palos to 
the Canaries and thence to San Salvador ; from Venice to India 
by the Eed Sea route; from Genoa to India by the Black Sea 
route ; etc. 

Calculate the size of the home town represented to scale on 
the map. Measure the thickness of one-hundred and sixty 
leaves of an ordinary book, and compare the scale length of a 
mile on the globe with the thickness of two leaves of the book. 
If there were people of the scale size on the model, would they 
be visible at all to the naked eye ? If we make a paper caravel, 
one inch long, to sail the Atlantic on the fifty-inch globe, what 
actual length would this paper ship represent by scale? How 
many times too large would this representation be? 

Continue this drill until the size of the earth is realized in 



LANGUAGE 81 

figures, and until the exercise itself no longer presents any diffi- 
culty. For further drill and its importance see the directions 
for September. 

LANGUAGE 

The abundance of reference material and literature suggested 
for October will make the need of condensation keenly felt. 
This is what the pupils need. Train them to say as much as 
possible in the fewest words. Make the language lessons defi- 
nitely aim at this, and have daily reports of the substance of 
stories read, news items, poems, paragraphs in the text-books, 
topics assigned to be looked up in reference books, etc. 

Paraphrase is not wanted but the gist in the fewest words 
possible. I know of no better exercise to form a concise, vigor- 
ous style in writing than the attempt to condense good authors. 
For example, use Fiske's account of Marco Polo or of Prince 
Henry. Have the pupils give condensed accounts of the Sinbad 
voyages. 

For October the Atlases may contain the map of the world 
as known in the time of Marco Polo, the map of the Portuguese 
discoveries on the route around Africa, the map of Columbus's 
first voyage, the pupil's condensed account of Marco Polo and of 
Prince Henry and his work, the condensed Sinbad voyages, 
a concise life of Columbus, and papers on such topics as the 
following : 

How did men travel in the days of Marco Polo ? 

What improvements had been made since the time of Ptolemy ? 

Of what countries unknown to Ptolemy had Marco Polo cer- 
tain knowledge ? * 

What trade and what industries were stimulated by the travels 
of the Polos ? 

* See Fiske's summary in his " Discovery of America," Vol. I, Chap. III. 



82 



OCTOBER 



Why were Italian navigators very prominent later, in Portu- 
guese and Spanish discoveries ? 

Fill the papers with illustrations; show Chinese pagodas and 
costumes, the Great Khan, elephants, junks, city walls, Turks, 
Prince Henry, a printing press, Constantinople, caravels of the 
fifteenth century, the compass, an astrolabe, Columbus, scenes 
from his life as presented in the play, etc. 

Make a Season Chart for the northern and southern hemi- 
spheres of the f olloAving form : 



SPRING 



SUMMER 



AUTUMN 



WINTER 



Mar April May 


June July Aug- 


Sept Oct Nov 


Dec Jan Feb 


1 


2 


5 


4 


THE 


EQUATORIAL 


- « EAT BELT 


_ ^- ■ — 


5 


* 


7 


a 


Mar April May 


June July Aug 


Sept Oct Nov 


Dec Jan Feb- 



Autumn 



Winter 



SPRING 



SUMMER 



In the blank spaces, 1 to 8, draw, paint, or paste pictures 
typical of the seasons north and south of the equator. Pill in 
the equatorial heat belt with characteristic pictures of the 
tropics. 

Grammar 

Remember that in grammar we are working with words, and 
that for the sake of clear thought it is necessary to have the 
pupils realize this. Hence, instead of saying that the subject 



LANGUAGE 83 

is " Columbus/^ or the attribute complement is " successful/' 
have the full statement, " the subject is the noun, Columbus ; 
the adjective, successful, is the attribute complement." One 
of the first difficulties in teaching formal grammar is the con- 
fusion of the thought with the thought-symbol ; hence use every 
device that will aid in early making the distinction. 

Train the children to think and state, first, the use of the 
word in the sentence, telling what word it modifies, or what its 
construction is, and then, secondly, the name of the part of 
speech that it is. The reverse order leads to guessing. 

Continue the September work in the drill as above on the 
parts of speech. Include for October the teaching of the 
attribute complement. Compare it with the object complement. 
How do they differ? Compare it with an attributive adjective. 

Spelling 

Continue the study of Latin roots in English words, especially 
such as connect with the'references to the Latin countries, Italy, 
Spain and Portugal; e. g., MediterraneOin, navigate, continent, 
peninsula, native, mariner, diameter, circumference., etc. 

Select the misspelled words from all the written work and 
drill on these words that need it. Try to form the dictionary 
habit, i. e., the habit of using the dictionary whenever in doubt. 
This will serve to distinguish sharply between knowing and 
guessing. 

Reading 

The teacher should read to the pupils frequently, but the 
pupils should have daily practice. The better readers may 
read to the whole class, but the poorer readers should have 
separate drill without wasting the time of the abler pupils. 

Portions of Fiske's " Discovery of America," the whole of 



84 OCTOBER 

the Sinbad stories, and of course all the material for dialogs 
should be read in this way. Practice should also be given in 
reading one^s own composition, as in reporting on reference 
work, also in reading and writing connected equations that 
represent sentences in arithmetic. 

THE ARTS 

Music 

In Eaymond^s " Columbus " there are several songs that add 
much to the drama and should be sung as part of it: "All 
Hail the Queen/^ chanted or sung on the discovery of land, 
" God of All Things Living,^^ sung at the close of Act III, 
" Hail to the Hero, Home from Strife,^' sung at the royal 
reception of Columbus at Barcelona on the return from the 
first voyage, and the opening and concluding hymn, " Life 
Divine.^^ The charming little motion song " Columbus,^' with 
Spanish melody, in Mabel L. Pray's " Motion Songs " (Heath 
& Co.), is very interesting to the children. 

The other songs chosen for the month of October are " Song 
of the Waves ^^ (Natural Music Eeader, 2), Mendelssohn^s 
" Farewell to the Forest,^' and Franz Abt's " Farewell to the 
Birds.^' Here we have chromatic effects like do-ti-do in different 
keys, the double sharp, the chromatic -fi and sil, and slurs. 
The intervals will also suggest special exercises. The beats 
divided by dotted notes will need some drill. 

Continue the written work and ear-training of September 
thruout the subsequent months. 

Drav^ing 

If the children have been drawing every day thru September, 
reciting with the chalk in hand, and illustrating their words 



THE ARTS 



85 




MODEL OF THE SANTA MARIA 



with outlines on the boards, picturing their visual images in 
their Historical and Geographical Atlases, they will have started 
the drawing habit and will strengthen the habit still more in 
October. Eequire all drawings to be done with few but firm 
lines, little or no shading, and no erasing. 

Have a great deal of drawing of the human face, in different 
views, front and profile, three-quarter and all possible inter- 
mediate positions; draw hands in various postures; draw cats. 



86 OCTOBER 

dogs^ rabbits, mice, birds, fish, etc., in different natural poses ; 
draw trees, plants, flowers; encourage out-of -school studies in 
drawing by asking for sketches of domestic animals — horses, 
chickens, pigeons, pigs, cows, sheep, goats, etc. 

Never discourage a pupil by finding fault or chiding him, or, 
worse still, laughing at his crude efforts. Praise what is good, 
sympathize with the idea intended to be expressed, and help out 
his technique, show him how to get effects in the simplest way, 
and teach him to see for himself. 

Making 

Make paper windmills to show the currents of air (p. 59), 
wind-vanes to show the direction of the wind, Chinese junks, 
Columbus^s caravels, and costumes and scenery for the Marco 
Polo dialog and the play of " Columbus.^^ Make a relief globe 
of clay as described in the Journal of Geography, for January, 
1904, p. 42. 

Make a lung-tester out of two li/4-gallon bottles, and some 
rubber tubing. (See "A Home-Made Lung-Tester,^' by Ber- 
narr McFadden, in Physical Culture for June, 1904.) 

Some of these articles will probably have to be made in 
' November, on account of lack of time in October. 




NATURE STUDY 



The tree study of October should be continued into Novem- 
ber, but now the trees stripped of their leaves and preparing for 
winter will form the subject of our study. Make a special study 
of tree-branching as determining the physiognomy of the tree. 
ISTote where the buds are strongest and most likely to prolong 
the branch or give rise to side branches. Count the age of the 
branches by the annual leaf-scars. Draw the tree from different 
sides. Note especially marks of individuality, as peculiar 
branching. 

Eemember that clear sense-impression must be individual 
sense-impression. General notions are easily formed when clear 
sense-impressions have been obtained. Do not attempt to mix 
the two and blur the clearness of the individual image. 

Note the causes of the variation in branching, if the tree is 
not symmetrical. Is the north side different from the south 
side? the east side different from the west side? What things 
near by have modified sunshine, wind or rain for the tree? 
Have some of the buds been killed by insects ? Is it possible to 

87 



88 NOVEMBER 

train a tree to branch in any prescribed way by simply con- 
trolling the growth of the buds and not pruning the branches 
at all? 

. Is there any correspondence between the shape of the whole 
tree and the shape of its parts, as^, for example, the shape of the 
individual branches, the shape of the leaves, the venation of the 
leaves, the shape of the fruit? What determines where the 
largest leaves will grow? Do the stoutest branches grow from 
their axils? 

What preparation has the tree made for winter? Study the 
same tree or several trees as in October. Note all the distinctly 
favorable influences of a local and individual nature that protect 
the tree. If, however, it fails to get proper sunshine or food, or 
is exposed to the cold blasts of winter, or to drouth, note the 
effect upon it. If you can find animal life on or about the tree, 
note its effect. Note and watch for later changes. Collect all 
the insect cocoons, chrysalids, galls, grubs, eggs, etc., you can 
find on or about the tree. Note how they too have prepared for 
winter. Study the life history of the insects and birds that find 
a harbor in the tree. 

Eecall something of the tree life of primitive man. Miss 
Katharine E. Dopp's primary book on the Tree-Dwellers is 
attractive, even for grown persons, and contains the right sort 
of material. 

Eecall the ways in which trees are important, aside from their 
worth as lumber; e. g., forests as shade, as home of man, bird, 
and insect, their influence on soil and climate; related senti- 
ments inspired by trees, groves, woods — awe, reverence, destiny, 
growth, decay, age, death, worship, etc. 

Tell of historic trees — of the Charter Oak, the Penn Treaty 
Elm, the Washington Elm at Cambridge, and others. 



nature study 89 

Weather Eecord 

If the pupils have been keeping a daily weather record on 
the blanks shown on page 29, they will now be ready to study 
the temperature changes over the whole of the United States. 
Study the daily isotherms on the government map, and note 
the causes of the irregular bends. Send to the Weather Bureau, 
Washington, D. C, for the Monthly Weather Review (twenty 
cents a copy). It contains maps summarizing all the weather 
features of the month, as well as tables giving the data in detail 
for all the weather bureau stations. 

Get a sheet of blackboard slating cloth, 40x50 inches, and 
mark out the coast lines of the United States with chalk, and 
then the state boundary lines. With light blue white-lead paint, 
line in the coast and Great Lakes and such of the rivers as form 
state boundaries. With white-lead line in the other state 
boundaries. 

This map may then be mounted on a roller, and you will have 
an invaluable aid in all the weather record work as well as in 
geography and history. All temporary features may be put in 
with chalk and erased again at will, leaving the outline map as 
clear as before. 

On this map copy the isotherms daily, and the isobars with 
the Highs and Lows. Note the wind direction with reference 
to the Lows, and its influence on the temperature. 

Send for a cloud chart in colors prepared by the United 
States Department of the Navy, Bureau of Navigation, Wash- 
ington, D. C. This chart contains twelve pictures of clouds, 
illustrating the classification by the international committee, 
and costs twenty cents. 



90 NOVEMBER 



GEOGRAPHY 

Follow the discoveries and explorations of the coast and 
rivers of America. Eecall the study of the ocean in the fourth 
grade. The Atlantic Ocean must be studied in order that the 
routes, the distances, the winds, and the storms of the voyages 
may be appreciated. The four voyages of Columbus will take 
us to the American Mediterranean, washing the shores of the 
West Indian Islands, Mexico, and Central America. 

To what part of the Old World Mediterranean Sea does the 
Gulf of Mexico correspond ? the Caribbean Sea ? 

What corresponds to Florida ? 

What to Yucatan? 

Where is the entrance to the x4merican Mediterranean? In 
what general direction does it extend? 

In what direction does the Old World Mediterranean extend ? 

Compare the two in latitude. Which reaches farther inland ? 

ISTame the largest navigable rivers flowing into each. 

How did each aid the discovery and exploration of adjoining 
continents ? 

Compare, also, the East and the West Indies, and see how 
it was possible for navigators for more than thirty ^^ears to 
think that they were one and the same group of islands. 

The voyage of Americus and the great circumnavigation voy- 
age of Magellan take us to South America, the Pacific Ocean, 
and the Philippines. Study the shape and the dimensions of 
the oceans traversed just as you would the coast line and area of 
continents. Have an abundance of ocean pictures, and recall 
stories of the sea studied in the fourth grade. 

With the first circumnavigation of the globe the idea of the 
roundness of the earth began to come into the consciousness of 
the common people more and more. Perhaps no other proof of 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 91 

sphericity is quite so convincing. Use globes and rubber balls 
constantly in place of flat maps. The children will thus be 
ready for the Copernican System at a corresponding culture- 
epoch. 

Draw the solar system to a scale on as large a sheet of paper 
as you can manage, but be sure to keep the same scale in repre- 
senting the sun and planets as in representing their orbits. On 
the open tield or playground mark out in lime the orbits, using 
as large a scale as possible. To the same scale construct the 
planets of clay and let pupils run around the orbits carrying the 
clay planets. The smaller pupils can carry the satellites. If 
the time of revolution be well managed, the best school orrery 
will thus be in motion, worth more to the pupils than the most 
costly piece of mechanical apparatus. The complicated epicyclic 
orbits of the satellites are thus particularly well represented. 
Eclipses of sun or of moon can be clearly acted out by this living 
orrery. 

HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

In studying Columbus, Americus Yespucius and Magellan, 
distinguish sharply between what they were aiming to do and 
what their work led others to do, between what they thought 
they were doing and what they really were accomplishing as 
shown by later history. 

The search for the Indies was the aim of all the great explora- 
tions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The discovery of 
America was but an incident in that great drama of geographical 
history that, beginning with Prince Henry and Columbus, has 
ended with the foundation of British Empire in India and 
American dominion in the Philippines. Columbus thought he 
had reached Asia, and on his later voyages sought to traverse 



92 NOVIiMBER 

the route that Marco Polo had followed on his return from Cam- 
baluc. Columbus failed to find any thorofare. 

After Cabral had happened upon Cape St. Eoque, nearly ten 
degrees east of the Line of Demarcation, Americus was sent to 
explore the new land;, and his voyage was epoch-making in that 
it completely exploded the Ptolemaic geography and established 
the existence of the fourth continent, America. " As a feat of 
navigation/' says Fiske, "no voyage previous to Magellan's sur- 
passed this third voyage of Americus, and none, except the first 
of Columbus, outranked it in historical importance.'' 

Americus explored the farthest limits of the Sea of Darkness 
and the antipodal world of the southern hemisphere. Not only 
was the equator crossed, but at South Georgia Americus had 
reached a point more than twenty degrees farther south than the 
Cape of Good Hope and more than a quarter of the way around 
the earth from Lisbon. The aspect of the starry heavens, so 
important to the navigator in tracing his course, was utterly 
changed. The Pole-Star and the Dipper sank entirely out of 
sight, while new and strange constellations appeared in the 
heavens. The Milky Way changed its shape. 

Columbus might identify Florida and Honduras with the 
coast of Asia and think that he was sailing among the islands 
of India, but Americus explored a coast that could not be part 
of Asia nor in fact of any known continent. It was not known 
to the ancients, it was a " New World." Jlhe Florida coast and 
the islands south of it that Columbus had explored were not a 
part of the "New World," they were a part of Marco Polo's 
Asia. What wonder was it that the " New World " was called 
America, in honor of its discoverer? Note that all of these 
names were differently used at that time from what they now 
are. Magellan accomplished what Columbus sought to do but 
failed in. Magellan's voyage was " doubtless the greatest feat 
of navigation that has ever been performed, and nothing can 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 93 

be imagined that would surpass it except a journey to some 
other planet/' Follow Fiske's account in " The Discovery of 
America/' Volume II. For fuller details take Butterworth's 
" The Story of Magellan/' or Towle's " Exploits and Voyages of 
Magellan." There is more to stir our blood and rouse our en- 
thusiasm in this " prince of navigators " than in any other of the 
great explorers. " Nor/' says Fiske, " can we ever fail to admire 
the simplicity and purity of that devoted life in which there is 
nothing that seeks to be hidden or explained away." 

" To bring out the correct outline and huge continental mass 
of North America, and to indicate with entire precision its rela- 
tions to Asia, was the work of two centuries." We shall recur 
to this in the explorations of Verrazano, Fray Marcos, De Soto, 
Hudson, Captain John Smith, La Salle, Marquette, Captain 
Gray, and Vitus Bering. At every step of advance in the con- 
ception of the shape of the continent, we have the two theories, 
the " wet " and the " dry," the oceanic and the continental, the 
Mela theory and the Ptolemaic theory, confronting each other 
and modifying the outcome. 

Use Irving's " Life of Columbus " for supplementary reading 
and Gordon Stables's " Westward with Columbus " for its vivid 
dialogs and full details that will give life and color to the story. 
In case Eaymond's " Drama of Columbus " is for any reason not 
used, it will readily be possible to arrange scenes for acting from 
the chapters of " Westward with Columbus," or from Cooper's 
'' Mercedes of Seville." 

Children of the fifth grade still delight in fairy stories. The 
material most appropriate would seem to be those legends that 
present the myth of light and darkness in its most attractive 
form. Let the familiar stories of Little Red Eiding-Hood, Cin- 
derella, and Sleeping Beauty be recalled and appreciated in their 
new meaning. 

Little Eed Eiding-Hood is the Evening Sun, the delight 



94 NOVEMBER 

and comfort of Grandmother Earth. But the Blackness of 
Xight, in the shape of a crafty, deceiving old Wolf, envelops 
the grandmother and snores as the thunder and storm wind. 
The huntsman is the Morning Sun, reviving Grandmother Earth 
and bringing Little Eed Eiding-Hood, also, back to life. The 
story represents, too, the changing seasons of the year. The 
Wolf is Winter, the Huntsman is Spring, and Little Eed Eiding- 
Hood is the Sun. 

Sleeping Beauty is the sleeping Earth in the winter, which is 
awakened in the spring by the kiss of the Sun. Cinderella is the 
Dawn Maiden. The envious sisters are the Clouds, and the step- 
mother is Black Night, trying to keep the Dawn and the Morn- 
ing Sun apart. Jack the Giant-Killer is the Sun, which dis- 
perses and overthrows the Cloud-Giants on the Sea of Darkness. 
The House that Jack Built is the World in the various stages of 
its development. The good ship Argo is the Earth that searches 
for and bears away in triumph the Golden Fleece from the Sun. 
If more material is wanted, take Siegfried and the Nibelungen 
stories. 

NUMBER 

Last month^s work in ventilation will lead to problems that 
will extend into this month. Measure the length and width of 
the schoolroom. 

How many square feet of area are there in one strip a foot 
wide and extending the length of the room? If the pupils are 
not already very familiar with the calculation of area, the 
square feet should be marked off on the floor with chalk. 

How many strips a foot wide and running lengthwise would 
cover the floor? 

How many square feet are there in the floor area ? 



NUMBER 



95 



How many square feet of floor space would this average for 
each pupil? 

Make a wire outline model of a cubic foot and place it on one 
of the square feet marked on the floor. 

How many such cubic feet would there be in the entire row 
the length of the room? 




NUMERATION FRAME 



How many rows would there be in the floor layer a foot 
thick ? How many such layers a foot thick would it take to fill 
the room ? 

What is the cubic content of the room? 

How many cubic feet of air are there on an average to each 
pupil ? 

If each pupil needs thirty cubic feet of fresh air per minute^ 
in how many minutes will the entire air of the room have to 
be changed? 



96 NOVEMBER 

On the large relief globe measure the length and width of the 
oceans and calculate their areas. In this way make estimates 
of the areas of the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Pacific, 
Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic Oceans. Compare results with 
the figures given in the geography. 

By measurement on the globe estimate the length of Colum- 
bus's first voyage, Magellan's voyage, and the third voyage of 
Americus. -Compare the lengths of the voyages. 

Toscanelli estimated the length of the earth's equator to be 
25,023 miles; Ptolemy had calculated it to be 23,515 miles; 
the real length is 24,899 miles. How much too great was Tos- 
canelli's estimate? How much too little was Ptolemy's? 
Columbus used Ptolemy's figures. 

What is the distance from Lisbon to Peking ? Columbus esti- 
mated that Peking was only about 4,000 miles west of Lisbon 
and that he would have only about 2,900 miles to sail between 
the Canaries and Japan. He really did sail a distance of 3,723 
miles according to his own dead reckoning. How much longer 
was his voyage than he had expected? 

Calculate the area of the earth's surface. What part of the 
surface is land; what part is water? 

What part of the total sea area is the area of the Pacific 
Ocean ? the area of the Atlantic Ocean ? the area of the Indian 
Ocean? the area of the Antarctic Ocean? the area of the 
Arctic Ocean? 

Treat similarly the areas of the continents as compared with 
the total land area. These questions had better be answered 
by using the even millions of square miles. 

Draw a diagram to represent these areas as follows: Using 
the scale of 10,000,000 miles to an inch, lay off on a horizontal 
line distances to represent the same number of miles as 
there are square miles in the areas to be represented. Then 
erect perpendiculars of any convenient length and complete the 



NUMBER 



97 



A HCTIC 



Oct/\N 





P/\c/ ric 

OcEIN 














I 



■"*. 



fiNTHRCriC OcEfl/v 



SCHEMATIZED MAP OF THE WORLD TO SHOW RELATIVE AREAS 

rectangles. The areas of these rectangles will be proportional to 
the areas of the continents and oceans. 

The distances in the solar system should be expressed in 
miles ; in time that it takes light to travel ; in time that it takes 
sound to travel ; in time that it takes a cannon ball to travel ; in 
time that it takes a railroad train to travel; in time that it 
takes a man to walk; in time that it takes a man to count the 
miles; in multiples of the earth's distance from the sun; in 



98 NOVEMBER 

multiples of the diameter and circumference of the earth; in 
multiples of the moon's distance from the earth. 

Draw the planets and the sun to the scale of 25,000 miles 
to the inch and cut out the circles. Then calculate the distances 
of the planets, using the same scale. Let the pupils carrying 
the scale drawings step off the distances from the sun on the 
playground or open field, or compare familiar distances in the 
home town from the schoolhouse or town-hall as a center. 

To teach decimals get decimal rulers to measure with — • 
either inches divided into tenths or a millimeter ruler. Let us 
take as our work the enlargement of the map of North America 
to twice the scale of the book map. Practice until the pupils 
become very familiar with reading measurements in decimal 
form and in writing them accurately on paper. Then drill on 
the doubling of the measurements. Then we are ready to begin 
to draw. Accustom the pupils to locating every desired point 
by two measurements, one from the side margin and one from 
the top or else from the bottom margin. Such work is admir- 
ably adapted to training pupils to care and accuracy in number 
work. 

LANGUAGE 

For November the Atlases may include the scale drawings of 
the solar system ; the diagrams made from the number work 
illustrating relative areas of oceans and continents ; the scale 
enlargement of the map of North America ; outline drawings of 
individual trees without leaves; the pupil's letter to Christo- 
pher Columbus telling him what he really did accomplish in 
contrast with what he thought he was accomplishing, and, per- 
haps, Columbus's reply to this letter ; a concise account of the 
new and strange sights and experiences of Americus Vespucius 
on his third voyage; a concise life of Magellan, and papers on 



LANGUAGE 99 

such topics as this: Why was America named after Americus 
Vespucius instead of after Columbus ? 

List all the countries, towns, counties, rivers, universities, etc., 
that have been named after Columbus. 

Name the ten foremost discoverers of America, and tell what 
each contributed toward the discovery of the continent. List 
the additions to knowledge of the world made between 1300 
A. D. and 1525 A. D. 

Draw Columbus, Americus, Magellan, the fleet of Cabral off 
Cape St. Roque, a birdseye view of Americus's third voyage, 
showing the ships and the incidents of the voyage. 

Illustrate Magellan's life with scenes in Portugal, in the 
mountains, and at court; his services in the East Indies; his 
exile; his conference with the young king of Spain, Charles Y; 
his preparations at Seville. Draw the spies and assassins by 
whom he was persecuted; his ships with the sailors in the rig- 
ging as they sail down the Guadalquivir; the hurricane in the 
Atlantic; a birdseye view of the exploration of the La Plata, 
and of the ships in winter quarters at Port St. Julian; the 
battle with the mutineers, April 1, 1520; the giants of Pata- 
gonia ; a birdseye view of the ships sailing through the Strait of 
Magellan, and out into the unknown Pacific; the landing at the 
Ladrones on the 6th of March, and at the Philippines on the 
16th ; the fight on the island of Matan, and the death of Magel- 
lan ; the massacre at Sebu ; the stop at the Cape Verde Islands ; 
the arrival of the Victoria in the Guadalquivir, September 7, 
1522. 

Retell and illustrate the sun and moon myths. 

Arrange to have a debate on the subject, Resolved, That the 
New World should have been named after Christopher Colum- 
bus. While of course two pupils should specially prepare to open 
the debate, yet the general debate participated in by all the 
class will prove the most interesting. 



100 november 

Grammar 

Teach the order of words and the punctuation of a sentence 
as the simplest form of diagramming. Connect the pauses and 
inflections of reading with the same idea. Use the line diagrams 
as helps to further clearness, but always try to have the full 
meaning expressed by the way the sentence is spoken. 

The objective complement naturally follows the object com- 
plement and the attribute complement in treatment. In taking 
up a new subject always choose clear and short sentences to 
illustrate the case. Enough differing examples must be pre- 
sented to represent the different uses of the objective comple- 
ment, when it is an adjective as well as when it is a noun. The 
various verbs that are followed by the objective complement 
shonild be typically illustrated. The month's work includes the 
easy construction of nouns in apposition. 

Spelling 

Treat all misspelled words individually. Do not depend on 
merely mechanical repetition, but note the special point of 
uncertainty and remove it. For example, the doubling of the 
" m " in the word " diagramming ^' may be associated with the 
doubling of the " m ^' in the word " grammar.'' The uncer- 
tainty in spelling the word " prairie " may be removed by noting 
that the " r " is like the nose, because it is between two i's 
(eyes). "Describe" is to be pronounced with the first syllable 
as "de'' (down), and then we shall not be in doubt whether 
it is " discribe '' or " describe.'' " Business " is derived from 
the adjective "busy." Sometimes cognate words will help 
over an uncertainty, e. g., " conservation " will enable us to 
remember that the third syllable of " conservative " has an " a " 
instead of an " i." 



THE ARTS 101 

In every case remove the cause of the uncertainty forever, 
and not merely till the next spelHng lesson. I had great diffi- 
culty in remembering how to spell the word " leisure '^ till I 
noted that the other way made it a " lie sure/^ 

Continue phonic drill all the year thru for the sake of teach- 
ing spelling as well as for the sake of the pronunciation in the 
reading and recitation. 



THE ARTS 

Music 

Arrange a different opening song for each morning exercise 
thru the week and then repeat on the corresponding days of 
succeeding weeks. Thus, for Mondays we sing, " Just for 
To-Day '' ; for Tuesdays, " God of Mercy, God of Love '^ ; for 
Wednesdays, " Try, Try Again '' ; for Thursdays, "Count Your 
Blessings " ; for Fridays, " God of Our Fathers.^' Of course it 
would be well to substitute other songs after a few weeks' use 
have made these familiar. 

The song " Little Jack Frost " should be recalled, or learned 
if not already known, and its mythical meaning made clear. 

The study of Americus's third voyage and the simple facts 
that led to the naming of the continent after him wdll give re- 
newed interest in our national hymn, "America." 

The songs chosen for November are " The Spacious Firma- 
ment on High," " Hail to the Queen of the Silent Night," 
" The Harp That Once thru Tara's Halls," and " From Green- 
land's Icy Mountains." 

Practice on the intervals found in the songs and especially 
the slurs. Eewrite ^ time as f time and f time as f time. 
Continue the work on chromatics, always letting the ear-training 
and the singing precede the symbols of reading. 



102 NOVEMBER 

Continue the ear-training in major and minor exercises, the 
recognition of familiar melodies from hearing the first phrase, 
adding missing notes from ear, writing chromatic exercises as 
the teacher sings. Pronounce and spell the tonic chord. 

Encourage solo work and thruout the year have individual 
singing daily as a matter of course. Have exercises in breathing 
and in distinctness of vowel and consonant enunciation. 

Drawing 

Draw clouds in outline. Draw a rapidly changing cloud in 
the successive stages of its mutations. 

Draw animals and children in motion, with the fewest but 
most characteristic lines possible. Sketch changing facial ex- 
pression. Note what lines are characteristic and leave out all 
others. 

For the birdseye views suggested in the life of Magellan, set 
up models of the scenes on the sand table first and draw from 
the model for the larger features but not for the details. 

Practice on trees till your drawing shows the kind of tree by 
the most characteristic features of its branching. 

Making 

Make a simple form of astrolabe. Cut out a quadrant of stiff 
cardboard or of thin wood and divide its arc into degrees very 
accurately. Attach a strong thread with a plumb-bob on its 
end to the circle center. Sight along the straight edge to the 
object whose altitude in degrees you are taking; the plumb-line 
will mark the altitude in degrees. 



THE ARTS 



lo; 



Model Saturn with its rings. 

Make models of Philippine houses of bamboo thatched with 
palm, bamboo bridges, boats, hats, etc.^ 




A SIMPLE PRIMITIVE FORM OF ASTROLABE 




NATURE STUDY 

Whenever snow comes there will be some opportunity for 
studying footprints. The interpretation of these '' stories in the 
snow/^ as William Hamilton Gibson calls them, is fascinating, 
and very stimulating to the observation. In his charming book 
of nature study, "Sharp Eyes'^ (published by Harper), read 
the chapters on " Stories in the Snow,'' " How Bunny Writes 
His Autograph," " The Grouse on Snow-Shoes," " The ' Fairy 
Eing ' and the Fairy," " Snow-Quakes and the Snow-Quaker," 
" Curious Specks on the Snow," and " Snow-Fleas." 

Notice the footprints of birds, cats, dogs, rabbits, rats, mice, 
horses, cows, sheep, chickens, children, and grown folks. It may 
take a Sherlock Holmes to unravel the mystery of all the activi- 
ties, characteristics, and purposes indicated by the footprints, 
but it is one of the best sorts of nature study for the winter. 
Trace also the wind forms in the drifts. Note the sweep of the 
wind currents about obstructions, as shown in the snow-drift 
modeling. Model a sand-drift similarly by wind from a hand- 
bellows on the sand table. 

This detective search for clews in the footprints in the snov/ 

104 
% 



NATURE STUDY 105 

may be followed by the study of the fo-ssil forms in the rocks, 
for the understanding of which it will prepare. Of course study 
the fossils of your own neighborhood. In the Monongahela 
Valley we have all the strata above the Pittsburg coal vein 
exposed in the steep cliff along the river bends, and in the 
shale above the coal are to be found abundant plant fossils and 
some animal forms. Teachers in this part of the country should 
have these carefully drawn and compare them with the ferns, 
horse-tails, club-mosses, etc., of the present. 

Tell the story of coal formation. Model the cliff and imitate 
the coal formation by stages of lake, swamp full of charcoal 
(powdered), muddy ocean depositing layers on its bottom, and 
risen land mass. Then make a miniature river wash down its 
bed thru these strata, thus exposing the coal formation as the 
real Monongahela Eiver has done. This can very readily be 
done by having the " formation " in a long, shallow, sheet-iron 
pan and letting a rubber tube supply the water to a miniature 
lake in the upper " valley.'' 

Sketch the chief geologic periods in a chart of the cross- 
section thru the crust of the earth. In a series of maps show 
the growth of the continent thru the Archaean, Paleozoic, Meso- 
zoic, and Neozoic Eras. Such charts are contained in Apple- 
tons' Physical Geography, Le Conte's Elements of Geology, 
Tarr's Elementary Geology, etc. 

Map and teach the zodiacal constellations, the Great Bear, 
Orion, Lyre, Cassiopeia, and the Dolphin. Give the main points 
in the heroology of astronomy — from the lives of Copernicus, 
Keppler, Galileo, Herschel. Get a telescope and show the great 
nebula in Orion. Sketch the nebular hypothesis in simplest 
concrete form. Give the children a chance to see Saturn, and 
let his rings show how worlds and moons were made. Examine 
the moon thru the telescope; it is the most fascinating object 
in the sky. 



106 december 

Weather Eecord 

The children have every day been noting the appearance of 
the moon and recording its phases in their weather records. 
It is now time that this basis of observation be extended to the 
fuller understanding of the motions of the moon and the causes 
of its phases. 

Trace the moon thru the constellations of the zodiac during 
the month. Note its changing phases as it moves onward. How 
long is it from new moon to new moon ? From new moon to 
first quarter? to full moon? to third quarter? 

Illustrate the movement of the moon by having a pupil carry 
a rubber ball (whitened on one side and darkened on the other 
half) around the other pupils grouped in the center of the 
room. The pupils will then see the moon as we see it from the 
earth. Keep the white side of the rubber ball toward the win- 
dow as toward the sun, and go in the direction opposite to that 
in which the hands of a watch move. 

Note the waxing crescent. In what direction do the horns 
point? In what part of the sky do we see the waxing crescent 
at sun-down? 

When is the moon gibbous? 

At sunset where do we find the full moon? At midnight 
where is the full moon? at sunrise? at noon? 

Why do we not see the waning crescent after sunset? When 
is the best time to see it? 

What is the interval between one full moon and the next? 

How many lunar montlis are there in the year? 

GEOGRAPHY 

Follow the Spanish explorers thru Mexico, Peru, Panama, 
Florida and the Gulf Coast-nl Plain. Study the physiographic 



GEOGRAPHY 107 

features — ■ climate^ forests, and natural products — of these 
regions as they were in the sixteenth century. In connection 
with the history of Cortes, Pizarro, Balboa, De Soto and Coro- 
nado, study the names of all the natural features, such as rivers, 
mountains, plains, bays, etc., that are derived from Indian 
or Spanish names. 

Secondly, in contrast with these regions as they were three 
hundred and fifty years ago, study them as they are at present; 
e. g., De Soto sought an El Dorado in what he still thought 
was Cathay. The cotton crop of the Southern States was worth 
$600,000,000 in 1903-4, or double the gold production of the 
world for the same year. What new features have been added? 
Study the population, white and colored; agriculture, products 
new and indigenous; forests; grazing; minerals; manufac- 
tures; cities; and transportation routes and commerce. 

Thirdly, consider the possibilities of the future for the Ameri- 
can Mediterranean, when the Panama Canal shall have been 
completed. The Gulf coast of the United States measures 1,852 
miles, while our Pacific coast stretches only 1,810 miles. The 
great Mississippi Basin naturally empties its immense harvests 
and manufactures into the ships that sail the G-ulf. With the 
opening of the Canal, the trade with the entire Pacific Coast 
and the Indies can be reached. 

Point out the similarity between the two Mediterraneans. 
They both open toward the Atlantic Ocean, one eastward, the 
other westward. The Old World Mediterranean needed to be 
connected with the great ocean at its southeastern end, to be 
a thorof are ; the New World Mediterranean must now be opened 
to the great ocean toward the southwest in order that it may 
become a highway of commerce for the world. England has 
succeeded to the shortened Portuguese route to the Indies, while 
the United States is just now preparing to shorten the Spanish 
or Columbian route to the East by sailing west. 



108 DECEMBER 

Note the growth of New Orleans, Galveston, and other south- 
ern ports in recent years. Study the north and south lines of 
railroad that reach New Orleans, Mobile and Galveston. Eead 
from the daily papers some of the stories of shipwrecks in hurri- 
canes off the Gulf Coast. 

As the geography narrows down to the more detailed study of 
limited regions it will be necessary to use flat maps. The 
weather record work in connection with the government weather 
map of the United States has already made the pupils somewhat 
familiar with the state boundaries, present cities, and meteoro- 
logical conditions of our country. But I have found nothing 
equal in value to a large floor map in developing a vital co-ncept 
of the country as a real part of the earth's surface. 

Standing on the floor map a pupil has the directions just as 
he has them on the earth ; the scale of New England is the same 
as that of Texas or California, and he gets the relative size 
fixed correctly in his visual image. As he moves over the map 
from state to state, or from hill-top to plateau or plain or 
prairie; or ascends or descends the streams; or crosses by the 
Indian trails or the great railway routes, he is combining motor 
images with his sensory images as he would combine them in 
traveling thru the country. 

Then, too, the scale may be made larger on the floor than 
on any wall map, and hence the features may be shown more 
plainly. Think of the pedagogic value of size in the great open- 
air model of Palestine in the Park at Chautauqua, of Jerusalem 
at Ocean Grove, and the growing-crops map of the United States 
at the Louisana Purchase Exposition. The scale of most of our 
little book maps is quite impracticable either for the purpose of 
forming a shape or area concept, or for scale calculation. 

The scale I have found most convenient to use is ten miles to 
the inch, as calculations of distance may then be made directly 
from inch-measurements on the map without any figuring what- 



GEOGRAPHY 



109 



ever. Be sure to have the map directions correspond with the 
actual earth directions. 

To make the rivers and coast line permanent they may be 
gouged out of the floor by a small;, sharp gouge. This will help 
very much in giving to the map somewhat the appearance of a 




MAKING THE FLOOR MAP 



relief map, and will make the rivers look natural. The bed of 
the rivers may be nearly filled with paint, which, being slightly 
below the level, does not wear off in the constant use of the floor. 
All water features should be put on in blue paint, the varying 
tints of blue to indicate the drainage systems. The contour lines 
for height may be put on in yellow, red, brown, or other color 



110 DECEMBER 

as one chooses^ white being reserved for artificial boundaries and 
black for cities^ railroads, etc. 

The population of the cities is indicated by tacks and brass 
and iron brads. Thus, a brass-headed tack alone indicates a 
population of less than 100,000; with a brass brad beside it it 
marks a population of 100,000 ; by two brass brads a population 
of 200,000 is shown, etc. ; with three brass brads and one iron 
brad a population of about 350,000. The cities of over a million 
in population — New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia — are 
best represented by tacking on pieces of tin, cut in shape of city 
boundaries to scale. 

All temporary features, such as routes of discovery, temporary 
boundaries, dates, names of places or of explorers, products, etc., 
may be put on by the pupils in chalk. When the floor is mopped 
the map will be fresh again for any new chalk features. 

It will also be found very helpful to have large charts of the 
states cut out on their boundary lines and with the physical 
features marked on them. Use the scale of ten miles to the 
inch. These may be 'used on the floor map in comparing areas 
and in emphasizing outlines. 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

During December we have to follow the Spanish, French, 
Dutch, and English explorers in their further discovery of 
America. " The wreck of the Admiral's flagship on the Christ- 
mas of 1492 determined the site of the first European colony in 
the New World. . . . There the Spanish colonial society 
assumed its earliest type. From that island we have seen the 
lines of discovery and conquest radiating westward with Velas- 
quez and Cortes, and southward with Balboa and the Pizarros. 
To Hispaniola we returned in order to trace the beginnings of 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 111 

Indian slavery and the marvellous career of Las Casas. From 
Hispaniola we must now again take onr start, but to return no 
more. We have to follow the lines of discovery northward with 
Ponce de Leon and Pineda, and far beyond them, until we have 
obtained a sketch of the development of the knowledge of the 
huge continental mass of North America. This development 
was the Work of Two Centuries, and during that period much 
other work of cardinal importance was going on in the world, 
which had resulted before its close in the transfer of maritime 
supremacy and the lead in colonial enterprise from Spain and 
Portugal to Prance and England.^^ * 

Make a more detailed study of the expeditions to the west 
under Cortes for the conquest of Mexico, to the south under 
Pizarro against Peru, *and to the north under De Soto for the 
exploration of Florida. Follow Fiske's account of the wonderful 
march of Cortes after sinking his ships. Use pictures profusely 
to draw out the imagination to realize that force of four hun- 
dred and fifty mail-clad Spaniards marching with their half- 
dozen small cannon and fifteen horses to the conquest of a 
nation. 

The Aztecs regarded the Spaniards as gods, and the horses as 
frightful supernatural monsters before which they fled in an 
ecstasy of terror. '^ As the little army advanced, its progress 
was heralded by awe-struck couriers who made pictures of the 
bearded strangers and their hoofed monsters, and sent them, 
with queer hieroglyphic notes and comments, to the Great Pueblo 
on the lake.^' 

Bring out the most essential points of difference in the ideas, 
culture, religion, laws, and power over nature among the Span- 
iards and among the Aztecs. Picture the thrilling moment when 
Cortes and his men first came into view of that city of wonders 
on the Lake of Tezcuco. Give a good deal of time and pains to 

* Fiske, " Discovery of America," Vol. II, Chap. XII. 



112 



DECEMBER 



imaging in language and pictures the civilization of the Aztecs. 
From the map and description in Fiske's " Discovery of Amer- 
ica '^ model the valley of Mexico on the sand table. 

Treat the conquest of Peru more concisely, but make plain to 
the children that the Spaniards were taking possession of the 




FLOOR MAP SHOWING WHEAT AREA 



country "by the same sort of right as that by which the lion 
springs upon his prey." 

Make clear the fact that the Spanish colonies were, for the 
most part, in territory occupied by the half-civilized Indians: 
and that the Spaniards simply took possession of the countries 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 113 

and turned over a large part of the revenues to the government 
at Madrid. 

Study De Soto's expedition thru Spanish Florida as a type 
of pioneer exploration, giving considerable time to the physio- 
graphic features of the country and to the type of culture rep- 
resented by the Creeks and Seminoles. 

The story of the French pioneers is briefly told. Touch on 
the Newfoundland fisheries (Cape Breton, 1504) ; Verrazano's 
coasting trip ("Sea of Verrazano '') ; Cartier's exploration of 
the lower St. Lawrence, and later the vital work of Champlain, 
the founder of Canada ; and lastly, the bloody story of the Hugue- 
not colony at Matanzas ("slaughter") in Florida. 

The vital chain of French exploration is all in connection 
with the great rivers of North America — the St. Lawrence with 
the great Lakes, and the Mississippi with its tributaries. The 
purpose of the French was to reach the interior of the continent 
for the fur trade and for missionary work among the Indians. 
Hence their chief contribution to the discovery of North America 
lay in their demonstration of the hugeness of the interior extent 
of the continent, the dissipation of the " Sea of Verrazano/' and 
the opening up of the natural highways of the interior along the 
rivers and over the portages and Indian trails. 

The struggle between Spain and England in the sixteenth 
century should be arranged artistically as a great drama of the 
nations, starting with the pictures of the dazzling splendor of 
the continental empire of Spain in America, and her vast Euro- 
pean dominions that made the Atlantic Ocean the " Spanish 
Main," covered with Spanish treasure ships which the English 
buccaneers lay in wait to capture. 

The second act opens with the Inquisition in Spain and the 
Revolt of the Netherlands. Act Three shows " an entire nation 
condemned to death " by Alva, and France drenched in the 
blood of St. Bartholomew's Day ; with " Matanzas " in Florida 



114 DECEMBER 

as the colonial counterpart. 'In the fourth act England begins 
to help the Dutch, and Spain gathers her strength to annihilate 
her antagonist. In Act Five the story of the overthrow of the 
Invincible Armada is told. The wslj is open for the English 
settlement of North America. 

The later drama of the French and English struggle, 1689 
to 1763, is reserved for the sixth grade. 

Use Fiske^s " Discovery of America ^' for facts and as liter- 
ature. Seek to acquire something of his charmingly clear and 
fluent style. Selections from Prescott's '^ Conquest of Mexico " 
may be read to the class. 

Some of the " Stories in the Constellations " should be told 
to the children in connection with their study of the stars. 

Some folk-lore stories may appropriately meet the eager de- 
mand of the children for this sort of literature. The " Story 
of Eeynard the Fox/' by J. J. Mora (Dana, Estes & Co.), or 
some of Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Eemus stories will be 
found suitable for the grade. 



NUMBER 

The study of the moon will make desirable the comparison 
of the astronomical time units — the terrestrial day, the lunar 
month, and the solar year. As the resulting ratios are all in- 
commensurable, only their approximate values can be found. 

Find (to hundredths) the number of lunar months in a solar 
year. A solar year is 365 da. 5 hr. 48 min. 46 sec. ; a lunar 
month is 29 da. 12 hr. 44 min. 3 sec. 

Find the difference between a lunar month and each one of 
the calendar months. 

What is the difference between the Julian year (365 14 days) 
and a solar year? In how many years would this difference 



NUMBER 115 

amount to a whole day? How many days would it make in four 
centuries ? 

The Julian Calendar was used till the year 1582 (in England 
till 1752). How many days too long are 1^600 Julian years? 
(Explain Old and New Style.) 

On the floor map measure the length of De Soto's route thru 
the Gulf Coastal Plain^ and calculate the distance in miles. 

Do the same approximately for Coronado's exploration. 

Calculate the distance from your home town due north to the 
Canadian border; due south to the boundary line of the United 
States; due east to the Atlantic coast; and due west to the 
Pacific coast;, and fix these distances in memory for orientation. 

With the metric ruler enlarge the map of the Southern States 
to double the scale. Locate every point by two measurements, 
one from the top of the map and one from the right (or else 
the left) margin. The pupil will note the distances in his tablet 
as follows : 



Points Distance from Top Distance from Right 

Cape Hatteras 27 mm. X 2 = 54 mm. 3 mm. X 2 = 6 mm. 

Cape Fear 43 mm. X 2 = 84 mm. 19 mm. X 2 = 38 mm. 

Savannah 63 mm. X 2 = 126 mm. 40 mm. X 2 = 80 mm. 



and so forth, using as many points as are necessary to determine 
the shapes of the state boundaries, and even points in the river 
courses, location of towns, etc. 

It is well to make out the above table complete before begin- 
ning to draw the map. In fact, the map may be left to the 
geography period or be assigned for preparation at home. 

Calculate ,the density of population to the square mile in each 
of the Southern States. 

Find the total population of the section, and the density of 
population for the whole section. 

List all towns with over 10,000 people in order of size. 



116 , DECEMBER 

Using the scale of 1 mm. to 10,000 people, construct a chart by 
drawing straight lines to represent the population. Eepresent 
the white and negro population separately. 

For all such statistics it is desirable to have the volumes of the 
Twelfth Census. The next best thing is the Abstract of the 
Twelfth Census (395 pages) to be had from the United States 
Census Office for thirty-five cents. In lieu of either of these 
one can get many facts from the population figures of the census 
in the geography text-books. The greatest help in appreciating 
numbers is graphic representation in the form of charts. 

The average yield of cotton per acre is 250 pounds, and 500 
pounds make a bale. How many acres would it take to keep 
an Alabama mill running a 5^ear if the mill uses 15 bales of cot- 
ton a day? How many such mills could the cotton acreage of 
Alabama supply with cotton? 

How many Fall River mills, each using 115 bales per day, 
could be kept running on the cotton crop of Mississippi ? 

How many bales of cotton will a 600-acre plantation produce ? 

At 5 cents per pound, what is a bale of cotton worth? 

At 7I/2 cents per pound, what is the worth of a bale? 

If the price rises to 13 cents per pound, what is the increase 
in the value of a bale? 

What is the cotton on a 600-acre plantation worth, at the 
market quotation in the daily paper ? What is the money value 
of the Texas crop ? of the crop of the whole cotton belt ? 

The consumption of sugar in the United States is 70 pounds 
per capita. How many pounds are needed for the whole coun- 
try? 

The United States produces about 372,000 tons annually. 
What percentage is raised in the country ? 

In 1850 the price of a pound of granulated sugar was 20 
cents, in 1870 it was 14 cents, and in 1904 it is about 5 cents. 



LANGTtJAGE 117 

What per cent did the price decrease between 1850 and 1870? 
between 1850 and 1904? between 1870 and 1901? 

From the forests of the Southern States ten billion feet board 
measure are cut every year. How much would this lumber be 
worth at an average valuation of $18 per M board feet? 

LANGUAGE 

Train your pupils to think and speak connectedly on their 
feet. Assign topics, and expect the pupil called on to give a 
reasonably complete report on it without having it picked to 
pieces by the teacher's questions. Train your pupils to make 
and use outlines. 

The correct use of sentences and paragraphs cannot be taught 
until the children think in sentences and paragraphs, that is, 
topically and completely. 

Vary the dictation exercises by having the children write out 
songs, poems, prose selections, quotations, proverbs, rules, etc., 
from memory. 

For December the Atlases may contain the map of the Southern 
States; an historical map with Hispaniola as the center, showing 
the Spanish explorations, conquests and colonization south, west, 
and north from this base; a condensed account of the conquest 
of Mexico by Cortes; an account of De Soto's expedition (as 
written by a survivor after his return to Spain) ; the drama of 
Spain's glory and humiliation in the sixteenth century as worked 
out by the pupils with the teacher, and the culmination in the 
overthrow of the Invincible Armada; a list of the additions to 
knowledge of the world made between 1525 and 1600 ; the geo- 
logical chart ; the phases of the moon ; the stories in the con- 
stellations ; the graphic charts showing statistics of the Southern 
States; and an abundance of pictures illustrating people, dress, 
boats, implements, houses, birdseye views of Mexico, the burial 



118 DECEMBER 

of De Soto^ Drake singeing the beard of the King of Spain, the 
defeat of the Armada, etc. 

Arrange to have three-minute speeches on Cortes, De Soto, 
Drake, Ealeigh, Queen Elizabeth, bringing out points of charac- 
ter or relation of events that are of importance. 

Grammar 

For December the prepo-sitional phrases receive attention. In 
use they are distinguished as adjective phrases and as adverb 
phrases. To bring out their nature vary the sentence to express 
similar thought in different forms, thus : The Spanish King — 
the King of Spain — Philip the Second of Spain ; purposely — 
on purpose — in order to — with the intention of — knowingly. 
Note shades of meaning and choose the expression that is most 
appropriate. 

In one of Fiske's paragraphs list the adjective and adverb 
phrases, and notice why they are better than simple adjectives 
and adverbs would be in their places. 

Why is the phrase differently placed in the order of words? 
The adjective usually precedes its noun, the adverb its adjective 
or its adverb. Why does the adverb follow the verb? What 
difference is made by putting it before the verb? 

Why do phrases usually follow the words they modify? Do 
they always? 

Learn a list of the commonest prepositions. 

Spelling 

Make the children refer constantly to the dictionary. It is 
not so much what they find as that they find the word in the 
alphabetic list. The mere hunting for a particular word is one 
very good exercise to impress the correct spelling on the mind. 
The searching thru the word list keeps the spelling of the word 



LANGUAGE 119 

in the mind of the searcher. Keqnire promptness in the finding 
of the word, or the search will degenerate into dawdling, and 
the pupil will even forget for what word he was looking. 

Teach the formation of derived forms, plurals, past tense, per- 
fect participle, and present participle. Accustom your pupils to 
the way these forms are represented in the dictionary. Have 
them look up the participles of a list of verbs. Teach the forma- 
tion of the third singular of the present of the verb. Have the 
formation illustrated so often that the children will see the rule 
of spelling involved. 

Reading 

It will seldom be found desirable to allow the better readers 
among the pupils to read in the reading class. The purpose of 
that class is to afford the poor readers needed drill. Occasion- 
ally it will stimulate interest and effort in these dullards to have 
some of their brighter comrades read the lesson to them. Usu- 
ally, however, the time of the good readers is too valuable to be 
used thus. They need practice, nevertheless, and should have 
it by individual reading in connection with the various exercises 
thru the day. 

For instance, a good reader may give a prepared reading of 
a selection at the opening exercises, or at the close of the after- 
noon session. The secretary of the Literary Society has the 
minutes every week to prepare and to read. At each meeting 
of the society there are two or three short prepared readings. 

All individual or original work needs to be presented to the 
class by reading, as, for example, when a pupil has had reference 
work assigned him and is ready to report on it. The best kind 
of work is the silent individual reading of some assigned topic 
or article in book or magazine, then the condensation of it for 
presentation to the class. 



120 DECEMBER 

THE ARTS 

Music 

The songs for December are " He Shall Feed His Flock," 
from HandeFs " Messiah," " Softly Now the Light of Day," and 
"Day Is Dying in the West." Select the difficulties from the 
songs and make up the exercises to give the needed practice on 
these points. In the exercises use the syllable names of the 
notes sometimes, but vary by singing la or loo. Try to develop 
the natural feeling for rhythm this month, taking the divided 
beats resulting from the dotted halves, quarters, and eighths. 

Have the pupils complete, from memory, familiar melodies, 
when part of the notation is given them, as, for instance, adding 
time,, key, signature, and missing notes and bars. 

Continue the ear-training with exercises, as indicated for pre- 
vious months. 

Drav^ing 

The rapid drawing of changing figures, passing clouds, and 
moving animals, and the attempt to catch and fix on paper the 
flitting elements of facial expression, will require concentration 
on the lines of force — the reduction of the drawing to its lowest 
terms, so to speak. Help the pupils to achieve this by blocking 
in, by using every device that suggests rather than portrays. 
Do not force your adult sight on the children; they must draw 
what tJiey see, not what you see. Imagination must always make 
the larger part of a picture. Leave abundant room for it in the 
unfinished details. 

Draw the " footprints in the snow " (or even make them in 
mud or lampblack on boards to draw from and study) ; the geo- 
logic fossils of the neighborhood; landscapes with the moon in 



THE ARTS 121 

different phases; birdseye views of Hispaniola and of the city 
of Montezuma; the Spanish army of invasion landing at Vera 
Cruz ; the death of Montezuma ; the " Melancholy Night/' Make 
illustrations showing the dress of the mailed Spaniards; their 
war horses; the dress of the Aztecs; their houses; their dining 
customs; market scenes; the temple worship; the human sacri- 
fices. Show Pizarro and his voyage to the Inca's country; the 
strangling of the ransomed Inca; the burning of the chieftain 
Chalcuchima; the triumphal entry into Cuzco and inauguration 
of Manca as Inca ; then the building of towns by the Spaniards ; 
newcomers by the ship-load despoiling the temples and carting 
away the plunder. Sketch De Soto's expedition landing at 
Tampa; the surprise; the meeting with the Indian queen on 
the Savannah; the pearl fisheries; the escape of the queen; the 
battle of Mauvila; the discovery of the Mississippi; the death 
of De Soto, and his burial; the remnant of the expedition re- 
turning down the Mississippi and along the coast to Tampico. 
Draw Drake's ships, and make sketches showing some of his 
exploits on the Spanish Main or in the harbor of Cadiz. Illus- 
trate scenes in the voyage and defeat of the Armada. Draw 
Ealeigh and Queen Elizabeth ; Shakspeare and the Globe Theatre. 
Make abundant illustrations for the " Story of Reynard the 
Fox " or " Brer Eabbit " ; show cotton-picking in the South ; 
draw semi-tropical fruits, etc. 

It is not to be understood that these subjects are to.be assigned 
in the drawing period and drawn as required tasks. While the 
story or history is being read or told to the class, the children 
draw on the board, or on their tablets, or take part in the discus- 
sion by asking or answering questions, the teacher doing the 
same. The pictures are then used in the rehearsal of the stories 
and in clearing up misconceptions. 



122 december 

Making 

From the seed raise in the schoolroom rice, cotton, tobacco, 
sugar-cane, and orange and lemon trees. The seeds ought to 
be planted as early in the school year as practicable, or the 
plants may be kept from year to year. Use the plants for models 
in sketching, and painting in water colors. 

The pupils may cut out the large state maps (ten miles to an 
inch) on their boundary lines. It will be sufficient for Decem- 
ber if they have the Southern States ready. 

Make a model to scale of the geologic formation of your neigh- 
borhood. Here in California, Pa., the vertical cliff across the 
river from the town furnishes us with the material ready to hand 
in a very easily made model. 

Dress dolls to represent Cortes, Montezuma, De Soto, etc. 
Make in clay models of Mexican houses, temples, etc. 

Try making a model of a cotton gin. Somewhat easier is a 
model of a cotton press for putting cotton into bales. 




c ■ y 



^^fr^-jt«i^^Ag' 



NATURE STUDY 

With the new year we turn to the study of pets and domestic 
animals. Here certainly we can study the footprints in the 
snow or in the soft earth. Pets are, moreover, individual and 
personal. If we admit that any of the lower animals reason and 
feel shame, repentance, or knowledge of having done wrong, it 
is the experience with pets that convinces us. They come the 
nearest to sharing our joys and sorrows. They are the connect- 
ing link with our " elder brothers " that are more remotely akin 
to us in mental life. Let us have individual studies and reports 
on the pets that the children have at home. Let us hear of the 
care, the nursing, the sheltering, the feeding; of the individual 
peculiarities of disposition, the attempts to do things in some 
new way; of new tricks, original or taught to the animal; its 
moods; how the animal shows its feelings, what it does that is 
like reasoning; how many words it understands and obeys; how 

123 



124 



JANUARY 



many different vocal expressions for ideas or feelings it has; 
how it knows its master, and how it expresses this. Tell of any 
interesting experiences with the pets. Draw the animal in as 
many characteristic attitudes as possible. 

Eead Andrew Lang's "Animal Story Book'' (Longmans); 
Hermon Lee Ensign's " Lady Lee and Other Animal Stories " 
(McClurg) ; Sarah K. Bolton's " Our Devoted Friend, The Dog'' 




DAY AND NIGHT IN JANUARY 



(Page & Co.) ; *^^ Eab and His Friends/' by Dr. John Brown; 
" How William of Orange Was Saved by His Dog," told in Mot- 
ley's " Rise of the Dutch Republic." 

The domestication of animals was one of the first steps in the 
development of the race from savagery. Its fundamental char- 
acter and value for education are evinced in the passion of chil- 



NATURE STUDY 125 

dren for pets ; in its widest sense, and possibly including hunting 
and fishing, it forms the true elementary zoology. 

The other special topic for the month is food, including the 
distinction between food and stimulants. The importance of 
the reserve power that accumulates as a "^ good constitution " 
from heredity and an abstemious but nourishing diet, should be 
illustrated by stories of those who in critically important emer- 
gencies were able to bear the strain upon them. 

Test for the chief chemical constituents in food, starch, albu- 
min, fat, etc. 

Trace the source in nature of the foods that come to the table. 
Teach their preparation from the raw state for the market. If 
cooking is taught in your school, as it should be, correlate this 
work with the domestic science work. 

Eecall the food of birds, and make the catalog as complete as 
possible. List the food of your pets and other domestic animals. 
Extend the list to include insects, wild animals, fishes, etc. 
How do the plants get their food ? 

Plagues of locusts, lice, army worms, boll weevils, rabbits, 
mice, etc., are generally due to a temporary disturbance of the 
balance in the interrelation of food supplies of the animals con- 
cerned. Man^s control over the mighty army of harmful and 
useful " elder brothers ^^ is mainly thru learning their feeding 
habits and then modifying the conditions by introducing friends 
or foes, as the case may be, to aid or to destroy the species con- 
cerned. Thus, the boll weevil is preyed upon by a little red ant 
of Mexico, which it is proposed to introduce into the Southern 
States to check the spread of the cotton destruction. 

Useful suggestions for a further study of food are found in 
Jackman's " :N"ature Study" (pp. 180-187). 



126 JANUARY 

Weather Eecord 

By the close of December the children will have become famil- 
iar with all parts of the weather record. The shortest days come 
just as vacation begins. By the time school opens after the 
holidays the afternoons are perceptibly lengthening, while the 
mornings remain nearly stationary. Thruout the month the 
lengthening averages a minute and a half a day at forty degrees 
north latitude. 

Cut two circular discs from stiff cardboard and fit them to- 
gether by slitting each to the center, so that each will turn on 
the other. (See figure on page 124.) Divide the circumference 
of each into twenty-four equal parts and number them as hours. 
If one of the discs is dark it will the better represent the night. 
These discs may be used to represent the absolute and the relative 
lengths of day and night thruout the year. Illustrate the longest 
day in different latitudes, north and south ; likewise the shortest 
day. 

As soon as the floor map is ready for use bring the children 
out on it to represent in active movement the weather changes 
over the whole country, as these are reported by the Weather Bu- 
reau on the daily weather map. 

EXERCISE NO. I 

The Highs and Loivs, Clouds and Winds 

Have a girl step out on the map carrying a rod with the word 
" High " on its top. She takes her position where the weather 
map reports a High. If there are several Highs, let each be 
represented in the same way. Have the " Lows " similarly car- 
ried by boys. The pupil reading the weather map then calls out 
the condition of the weather, e. g., " Minneapolis clear, Chicago 
clear, St. Louis cloudy, Memphis cloudy, Lincoln cloudy," etc. 



NATURE STUDY 



127 




FLOOR MAP SHOWING HIGHS AND LOWS 

(Clear, Girls; Cloudy, Boys) 



As the cities are called the pupils step out on the map and stand 
on the 23lace named, the boys representing the cloudy weather 
and the girls the clear weather. 

When all the members of the class are out on the map, the 
reader again goes over the list of signal stations, this time calling 
out the direction of the wind. As each town is named the pupil 
standing at that point turns and faces the direction in which the 
wind blows. 

The pupils may be questioned as to what changes of tempera- 
ture they expect at the places at which they are standing, in con- 



128 JANUARY 

sequence of the wind direction. Cooler may be indicated by 
turning up the coat collar or putting a handkerchief around the 
neck, while warmer is shown by fanning or unbuttoning the coat 
or wiping the brow with the handkerchief. 

This exercise should be repeated each day. It takes but a 
very few minutes, and occupies all the class in an active, co- 
operative, thinking drill. 

When the children are somewhat used to the procedure, they 
may be asked to face the direction in which they think the wind 
should be blowing, without being told the direction till after- 
ward. This will accustom them to the significance of the Highs 
and Lows. They may anticipate the po-sition of the clear or 
cloudy weather, also, and thus be trained to forecast the weather 
from the fundamental conditions. 

EXERCISE NO. II 

Tlie Movement of the Highs and Lotus across the Country 

As the children become accustomed to the representation of the 
weather in this way, the changes from day to day may be acted 
out by the class without any break in the performance. 

The Highs and Lows, moving eastward across the country, 
carry similar weather conditions of cloud or clear, of wind direc- 
tion, and of temperature eastward. Hence, in general, the chil- 
dren have only to move eastward about six hundred miles and 
they have brought with them the weather of the next twenty- 
four hours. This may be corrected by reading the weather from 
the map of that day, and noting any irregular movements, as 
the breaking up of a cyclonic center, its disappearance, or the 
formation of new centers in the south or southwest, or, as is 
more usual, in the far northwest. 



NATURE STUDY 129 

EXERCISE NO. Ill 

The Rainfall or Snowfall 

As the reader of the weather map calls out the names of the 
signal stations, with the reported rainfall or snowfall, the chil- 
dren step out on the map, the boys to stand for rainfall and the 
girls to act the part of snowfall. Each one carries his or her 
decimal inch ruler and indicates on it the amount of rain or 
snow that has fallen, by sliding a white paper marker along the 
ruler. The progress of the storm to the eastward may also be 
acted out by all the pupils moving eastward till they reach the 
coast, whereupon they take their seats. 

EXERCISE NO. IV 

The Isotherms and the Isobars 

The reader calls out the thermometer reading at the different 
stations, and the pupils step on the map, remembering the tem- 
perature of the place they are standing on. After the map 
is full of pupils, those at places with a temperature of zero hold 
up their hands ; then those at 10° ; then those at 20°, and so on 
as the wave sweeps southward. 

The isotherms may be represented by a cord held by all of those 
having the same temperature. The boys may stand for tempera- 
tures above freezing and the girls for temperature below freezing. 

The isobars may be similarly represented. Eising or falling 
of either barometer or thermometer may be indicated by the posi- 
tion of the hand up or down. The boys may stand for barometer 
readings below normal and the girls for barometer readings above 
normal. 

Monthly or seasonal averages may, of course, be represented 
in the same way as the daily weather conditions. While the 
children are standing on the map, they may be questioned as to 



130 JANUARY- 

the causes of local differences; as, for example, near the coast, 
in the Lake Kegion, in the Eocky Mountain states, in the Great 
Basin, along the Pacific slope, etc. 

Such thinking of the weather in large areas will be found 
most valuable in making the mind familiar with the country as 
a whole. If a snail grows large in proportion to the size of the 
pond he lives in, how much more important for the heart and 
mind of a man is the size of his thinking and feeling ! 

GEOGRAPHY 

In the course of the seventeenth century the Atlantic seaboard 
was settled from Newfoundland to the Carolinas. This is the 
region to be studied thruout January and February. In Janu- 
ary we take from the Hudson to the Savannah, and study first of 
all the physiographic features that the Indians and the earliest 
settlers knew\ 

List the rivers, lakes and mountains that have Indian names, 
and group them by regions and by the Indian stock from which 
they came. Similarly trace the Dutch names of streams, hills, 
and towns between the Connecticut and the Delaware; the few 
Swedish names along the lower Delaware ; and the French, Ger- 
man and Scotch names of counties and towns in the Carolinas. 

In this work great help may be had from Bulletin No. 197 of 
the United States Geological Survey : " The Origin of Cer- 
tain Place Names in the United States," by Gannett. 

We also recall the geology of the section as far as the 
children have had it, and add to their knowledge many more 
definite points in the geology of the Appalachian Highland, the 
Piedmont Plateau, and the Coastal Plain. 

Take the geological map of Pennsylvania and trace out on it 
the outcroppings of the greatest geologic ages. Now in cross- 
section east and west thru the Appalachians in Pennsylvania, 



GEOGRAPHY 



131 



draw the chief strata in colored chalk on the blackboard on a 
large scale (an inch to a mile), representing the strata as they 
were formed before any erosion had occurred. The crests of the 
older Appalachians will then be represented as five inches high. 
The great coal veins will extend over nearly the whole state, in 
many places being higher than the highest crests are now. With 
the eraser wipe out all the parts that have been eroded in these 




MODEL OF HOME REGION 

(California on the Monongahela) 



ages since the coal era. There will remain the cross-section of 
the Appalachians as they are to-day.* 

Model the neighboring portion of the Monongahela Valley in 
sand or clay. The best material is the permanent plastic clay 
(Composite Modeling Wax) that remains soft and does not crack, 
furnished by F. W. Devoe & C. T. Eaynolds Co., New York. 

* Cf. Dryer's Physical Geography, p. 184. 



132 JANUARY 

Use the same scale for height as for horizontal measurement, 
say ten inches to the mile, or, if preferred, take twenty centi- 
meters to a kilometer. This will show an area about three to 
four miles square centering about the home town, and should be 
constantly at hand for reference to type features of physi- 
ography. 

We have great help from a working model of a flowing river 
that is eroding its bed thru six feet of rock, sand, clay, coal, 
soil, and slate, from a lake where it rises in the mountains down 
over cascades and windings to the coastal plain and delta at the 
seashore. 

The physical features of this " Land of Lilliput ^^ are named, 
and maps showing the changes in flood and drouth are drawn. 
The Lion Eiver rises in Little Bear Lake, whose source is the 
Sand Spring in the side of Badger Mountain. The chain of 
the Horseshoe Mountains nearly surrounds the lake. A few 
centimeters from the lake the Lion Eiver plunges over Bubble 
Falls into the pool below, and then begins its course of washing 
down the valley. 

At flood time the river fills its valley from hillside to hillside, 
but in the drier time, when Bubble Falls only sparkle their 
beaded streamlets, the Lion Eiver is a modest little stream cutting 
down its flood plain in a single narrow bed. 

On this wide alluvial plain Eankey's trial took place. N'orth- 
east, beyond the Beaverback Mountains, is the desert called Huf- 
ferslow, and "the miry swamp, hight Quarrelpit, is in the very 
midst of it.^^ Here the ground water oozes up from the sandy 
soil whenever Little Bear Lake has water in it. A spring from 
the west side of the Horseshoe Mountains forms a branch of the 
Lion Eiver. 

A little farther down the stream is an old lake bottom thru 
which the Lion is carving its channel. The river formerly flowed 
into the east side of the old lake and then issued from its south 



GEOGRAPHY 133 

comer; but now the stream has washed into the outer shore so 
far as to undermine the narrow ridge of the Kamisura and has 
broken thru, making an underground river for a short distance. 
Where it again comes to the surface it is near Malpertouse, Eey- 
nard's castle. In the vicinity are numerous caves, and about two 
decimeters down the stream beyond the next bend is Smugglers' 
Cove, just fifteen centimeters from the delta lands of the mouth 
of the Lion. 

Here the left bank is steep, leading upward to a triangular 
plateau, the meeting place of the animals. From the plateau 
looking to the north we can see Rustyfile^s place with the oak log 
in the front yard. ISTear by another branch Joins the Lion 
River. 

The delta formation shows all the characteristics of the Mis- 
sissippi delta, pushing out into the Gulf of Mexico. It has three 
branches, in each of which the stream washes out its channel, 
except at high flood, when everything is covered with water at 
the delta and the soft alluvial deposit is rapidly carried away. 

The old stream issuing from the old lake cut down its valley 
to the coal beds, exposing the coal vein on both sides of the 
stream as the Monongahela has done. 

The two heights of water in the ocean into which the Lion 
River flows illustrate the tides. Eddies, currents in the river, 
lake, and ocean; whirlpools at the bends; the carrying of silt 
and the heavier sand down the stream ; the wearing away of the 
outer bank, and the forming of a sand-bar on the inner bank of 
every bend, are all shown clearly in ever changing phases. 

The soil and rock are prepared in strata and faults, out- 
crops and tiltings, so that the Lion River may find its life-history 
as similar as possible to that of its giant brothers of the earth. 

The great advantage over the sand model is that here the river 
makes its own bed ; it is active and moving, changing and " going 
on forever.^' It has the fresh interest of a living animal. Its 



134 JANUARY 

eddies are like thoughts that indicate a changing purpose; it 
seems pulsating with life^ murmuring and babbling over its 
gravelly bed. 

Treat the products from the standpoint of history of the colo- 
nies. Thus the early importance of the tobacco in Virginia, 
of the rice and indigo in the Carolinas, of the furs in New York, 
serve to give a perspective to the industrial development and 
contrast with the great staples of the present — dairy products in 
New York; iron and textiles in New York and Pennsylvania; 
fruits and gardening in New York, Maryland, New Jersey, and 
Delaware; tobacco and cotton in Virginia and the Carolinas. 
Make very plain the importance of the Fall Line and trace it 
thru all the states. 

Teach the local conditions that center the great industries in 
particular regions, as the iron and steel industry in the Pitt - 
burg district; glass-making near Pittsburg and Wheeling; the 
manufacture of pottery and bricks near Trenton and Philadel- 
phia; the tobacco industry at Richmond; the manufacture of 
steel ships and woolens at Philadelphia; cotton raising in the 
Piedmont Plateau, and rice culture in the Carolina swamps. 

Eead from the daily papers of the shipwrecks and rescues oif 
the Carolina coast. Cape Fear, Cape Look Out, Cape Hatteras, 
Fire Island, Nantucket, and Cape Pace. 

Recall what was studied in the fourth grade about the early 
trips across the mountains by Gist, by Weiser, by Washington; 
the Indian trails in Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia; 
what has been learned in other grades of the Hudson-Champlain 
route to Canada, the Mohawk-Oswego route. Mark out on the 
floor map the great transportation routes across the Appalachians 
and trace their influence in locating the population and the in- 
dustries. 

Thus treat the New York Central Railroad and Erie Canal, 
the Pennsylvania Central, the Baltimore and Ohio, and the 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 135 

Chesapeake and Ohio. Get the advertising matter and time- 
tables of these railroad companies, and be sure that the towns 
along the routes are well associated with the routes and the in- 
dustries of the sections. 

What merchandise will be sent east and what will be sent 
west by each route? 

Why have the earlier canals usually been superseded by rail- 
roads ? 

Note that now all but one of these great trunk lines reach 
New York. Why is that ? 

Why does the Erie Canal continue to be important after the 
abandonment of so many other canals ? 

Make type studies of the following : the oyster fisheries ; coal- 
mining; a blast-furnace; Pittsburg as a trade center; oil and 
natural gas; tobacco in Virginia; New York city as the great 
port and metropolis of the country; shipbuilding on the Dela- 
ware; Washington as the seat of government. 

HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

During January we follow the settlement of the Atlantic 
Coast from the Hudson to Spanish Florida. 

Eecall the unsuccessful attempts at colonization at Fort Caro- 
line and at Eoanoke Island. Why were these settlements fail- 
ures? Their fate illustrates the importance of the destruction 
of the Spanish naval power before successful colonies could be 
planted in America by either France or England. " The defeat 
of the Invincible Armada was the opening event in the history 
of the United States. It was the event that made all the rest 
possible. Without it the attempts at Jamestown and Plymouth 
could hardly have had more success than the attempt at Eoanoke 
Island." * 

* Fiske, " Old Virginia and Her Neighbors," Vol. I, Chap. I. 



136 JANUARY 

EaleigVs importance in our early colonial history is due as 
much to his part in the defeat of the Spanish navy as to his 
attempts at Roanoke. With the close of the sixteenth century 
and the beginning of the seventeenth century England controlled 
the ocean routes to America, and her line of communication with 
the infant colonies was safe from interruption. Then began the 
successful colonization by England at Jamestown in 1607, and 
at Plymouth in 1620. 

On the floor map mark out in chalk the three zones as defined 
in the Virginia charters of 1606 and 1609. Make clear to the 
children, howe'^er, that this petty device on the part of King 
James to quicken the settlement of the colonies has happened 
to coincide with the very important division of our coast into 
New England, the Middle Colonies, and the Southern Colonies; 
but that the characteristics of these three divisions are due to dif- 
ferences, first, in the character and purposes of the early set- 
tlers of the three zones ; secondly, in the form of local self-gov- 
ernment; thirdly, in the physiography of the regions; and 
fourthly, in the resulting local industries. These points should 
become clear thru the concrete facts as the study of the settle- 
ments proceeds. 

How characteristic of this period it is for England and Holland 
to colonize by a commercial joint-stock company ! But such a 
method soon proved its weakness. Colonizing at the beginning 
of the seventeenth century was all an experiment, without previ- 
ous experience to guide the promoters. Their mistakes and fail- 
ures, if rightly understood, are as valuable for us to study as 
their successes. Do not, then, too lightly pass by such matters 
as the intrigues of Spain against the infant colony, the search 
for the Sea of Verrazano or some way thru to the Pacific Ocean, 
the hunting for gold and diamonds, the attempt at communism, 
the starving time in the winter of 1609-1610, the extremely 
precarious relations with the savage Indians, the difficulties of 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 137 

raising or of purchasing enough food and other necessaries of 
life in the wilderness, the development of tobacco-raising, the 
beginning of slavery in America, the growth of self-government 
in Virginia, the coming of the cavaliers, the receding of the 
frontier, and the resistance to Berkeley's tyranny. 

Fiske gives some interesting statistics of the increase in popu- 
lation and the development of the tobacco industry. 

Many of the geographical names are redolent of historical 
association — Jamestown, James Eiver, Capes Charles and 
Henry, Newport News, Point Comfort, Hampton Eoads, Dela- 
ware Eiver. 

The various forms of governing the Virginia colony and the 
modified attempts in the case of the other colonies will be most 
intelligible if the facts be presented as actual experiments (for 
they were such) in the solution of the problem of governing 
colonies. Such a study is the best course in civics that we can 
devise. Do not deal in abstract generalities ; everywhere use the 
concrete facts and fill out the details of actual life. 

The early history of North Carolina is the story of the reced- 
ing frontier moving southward from the settlements on the James 
Eiver. The course of this movement, with its rough life and 
turbulent lawlessness, was powerfully modified by the immigra- 
tion of sturdy Huguenots after the Eevocation of the Edict of 
Nantes, of hard-headed Germans from the Ehenish Palatinate 
after its barbarous devastation by the troops of Louis XIV, of 
Scotch-Irish from Ulster after 1719, and of Scotch Highlanders 
in 1745 after the suppression of the Jacobite rebellion. 

In South Carolina similar elements were mingled, but in dif- 
ferent proportions. 

Society was very different in the two colonies, in South Caro- 
lina being closely centered in Charleston and strongly aristo- 
cratic, while it was more democratic in North Carolina, and scat- 
tered. The South Carolina planters grew rich by cultivating 



138 JANUARY 

rice and indigo; in North Carolina the products were mainly 
tobacco, corn and rice from small farms, and lumber, tar and 
turpentine from the splendid forests of yellow pine. In North 
Carolina " the typical picture is that of a few black men raising 
tobacco and corn on the small plantation where the master 
lives." In South Carolina " it is that of an immense gang 
toiling in a rice swamp under the lash of an overseer." About 
1760 the inhabitants of North Carolina were reckoned at 
200,000, of whom one-fourth were slaves; those of South Caro- 
lina at 150,000, of whom nearly or quite three-fourths were 
slaves.* 

Mark on the floor map the Fall Line and have the children 
realize that it represents the western frontier for all the colonies 
from Virginia to Georgia in the eighteenth century. It is, then, 
only the lowlands near the coast that the colonists have settled 
up to this time. Later, these diversities in the coast regions 
were not continued into the uplands, so that the Piedmont belt 
of these South Atlantic States presents a much more homo- 
geneous picture both as a frontier and later as a settled agricul- 
tural region with its great staple, cotton. 

Georgia was established for the twofold purpose of freeing 
insolvent debtors who crowded English prisons and of establish- 
ing a strong- military outpost that might serve as a buffer against 
the Spaniards. 

Fill in these sketchy outlines with abundance of life and blood 
detail. Eemember that people are interested in life and can 
easily enough generalize from the concrete when they have the 
right concrete impressions as a basis for thinking. The chief 
diffleulty in teaching history is to avoid wrong generalizations 
from false concrete images. Fiske's " Old Virginia and Her 
Neighbors " is an admirable account for the satisfactory treat- 

* Fiske, " Old Virginia and Her Neighbors," Vol. IT, Chap. XV. 
% 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 139 

ment of these southern colonists. The teacher should be familiar 
with its contents and draw from its rich wealth of facts. The 
compendious school-texts are tit only for use in review after the 
teacher has first presented the living picture and stirred the 
hearts and the imaginations of the pupils. 

Maryland was the first of the proprietory governments, and 
may well serve as our type in stud3dng them. After Plymouth 
and Massachusetts Bay it was the first settlement planned as a 
refuge for the persecuted. It was the first colony that offered 
a limited toleration in religion. In industries it resembled both 
Virginia on the one hand and Pennsylvania on the other. 

A pretty full account of the life of Henry Hudson is needed,* 
to fix in mind the connections of events in the beginning of the 
seventeenth century. Hudson was the Hansen of his time, and 
had already become famous for his voyages into the Arctic 
waters in search of the pole and a north-of -Europe route to India. 
The Dutch engaged him in their service for a further attempt, 
and he set out for Nova Zembla in a little yacht of eighty tons 
burden with a crew of only sixteen or eighteen men. (Fiske.) 
He had tried passing directly thru the Polar Sea, and on the 
second voyage had tried the route between Nova Zembla and 
Spitzbergen ; now he found himself again baffled in the attempt 
to cut his way thru the ice and get thru to the northeast. 

Captain John Smith, who had explored the Chesapeake in the 
preceding summer, had written to Hudson about his own fruitless 
search for a strait to the Sea of Yerrazano and suggested that the 
passage westward might be found a little farther north. Hudson, 
with Smithes letter in his pocket, instead of returning to Amster- 
dam as his instructions bade him, turned southwest and skirted 
along the American coast, stopping at Penobscot Bay, Cape Cod, 
and Delaware Bay, and finally dropped anchor at Sandy Hook, 

* See Fiske, " The Dutch and Quaker Colonies," Vol. I, Chap. III. 



140 JANUARY 

determined to search for a westerly route^, as Columbus had done 
when the easterly route proved impracticable. It is only when 
one grasps these facts with the accompanying details that one 
becomes interested or understands the men and their motives. 
" Smith was the savior of Virginia, he gave to New England its 
name, and he was instrumental in sending the Dutch to Manhat- 
tan!'' 

After Hudson returned to England, King James forbade him 
to go to Holland, and at once sent him out on another voyage in 
search of the Northwest Passage, in the course of which his 
mutinous crew set him adrift in an open boat in the great sea 
that has ever since been known as Hudson's Bay. Most ex- 
plorers accomplish more that they do not aim at than they ac- 
complish of what they do aim at. Hudson was a successor to 
Columbus in the search for a westerly route to India, but he 
started two immense industries, the Spitzbergen whale-fisheries 
and the Hudson Bay fur-trade; and he brought the Dutch to 
Manhattan Island. 

Eecall the work of the previous grade on the Indian fur-trade. 
Follow up the commercial enterprise of the Dutch on the Hud- 
son under the Dutch governors, and see why New Netherland 
failed to attract settlers as fast as the English colonies in Vir- 
ginia, Maryland, and New England. 

Typical tho somewhat distorted as caricature, " Knicker- 
bocker's History of New York " may well be drawn on for sup- 
plementary reading. Many of the scenes may best be thrown into 
dialog form and acted out with Dutch dress and improvised 
articles of Dutch housekeeping. The girls will be delighted to 
dress their dolls up as Peter Stuyvesant, or act out the " Cares 
of the Huysvrouw," as told by Helen Evertson Smith in her 
charming "Colonial Days and Ways" (Century Company). 

In dealing with colonial life it is necessary to remember that 
not only were the several colonies very different in social man- 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 141 

ners and material comforts, but there was a very marked and 
rapid improvement from decade to decade thru the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries in all the colonies, as indeed there was 
thruout Europe, too. 

Our pupils would know fewer things that are not true if we 
were less eager to hurry them along to generalizations and opin- 
ions for which they are unripe, and if we would in the place of 
these give the children that fullness of actual life details that 
leaves an indelible and therefore always serviceable mental picture 
to be used in the thinking of all the later years. The bald 
statements of the text and the teacher are responsible for the 
fact that perhaps more than half of all that is taught is forgotten 
before the year is out, and of the remnant remembered less than 
half is unperverted from the truth. How little of the sacred 
flame of interest has been enkindled ! 

Why did the Dutch of New Netherland welcome the transfer 
of sovereignty to England in 1664? If the life under the Dutch 
governors has been pictured with any approach to reality, the chil- 
dren will naturally sympathize with the inhabitants in their 
action. But did the colonists get the reforms in government 
that they expected? The overthrow of Andros and Leister's 
Rebellion are part of the answer. 

What facts made New York of commanding importance to the 
English in 1664? The greatness of this commonwealth dates 
from a period subsequent to the Eevolution. It was not till the 
movement of New Englanders westward thru the Mohawk Valley 
and the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 that the Empire 
State came to be recognized as the leading state in the Union. 

Thruout the colonial period the fur-trade was always the 
controlling interest. Show why this trade reached New York 
more than New England or Pennsylvania. 

Here is, perhaps, the best place to treat that very interesting 
r.nd really important colonial topic, the piracy along the Ameri- 



142 JANUARY 

can coast. It would be well to teach the related subjects from 
Drake's and Hawkinses exploits against Spanish treasure ships, 
the Navigation Acts and the suppression of manufactures in the 
colonies, the smuggling, the kidnaping of white persons in Eng- 
land and the stealing of negroes in Africa, down to the stirring 
careers of Blackboard and Captain Kidd. 

It is worth while to realize vividly what these things mean, 
and to know how these false aims flourished, in order to get a 
perspective of the moral development thru the centuries. 
Community life and national existence are on a much higher 
plane now than they were two or three centuries ago. 

The English settlement of New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsyl- 
vania may best be treated together. The founding of Pennsyl- 
vania deserves a pretty detailed study, as the culmination in the 
century's experiment in colonization. William Penn undoubt- 
edly did endeavor to profit by the experience of the other colo- 
nies in making his " Holy Experiment " a success. In large 
measure he succeeded. Absolute freedom of conscience was 
guaranteed to everybody. Governments exist for the sake of the 
people, declared Penn, and not the people for the sake of the 
government. This principle he tried to follow out in his Frame 
of Government. In penal legislation, the reformation of the 
criminal was held to be a worthier object that the wreaking of 
vengeance. The Philadelphia prisons came to be known as the 
best in the world. The famous Shackamaxon Treaty with the 
Delawares, " the only treaty between Savages and Christians that 
was never sworn to and that was never broken," forms one of 
the brightest features of our colonial history. 

When the Scotch-Irish and the Germans from the Palatinate 
began coming in large numbers to America, they entered in 
greater number into Pennsylvania than into any other colony; 
so great was its fame and reputation abroad. They went west- 
ward into the mountains beyond the Susquehanna, and then in 



NUMBER 143 

large numbers passed southwestwardly thru the Great Valley into 
the southern colonies. Pennsylvania has been the " chief center 
of diffusion of the people who became afterward the pioneers of 
the democratic West."^ (Fiske.) 

One of Fiske's most interesting chapters in his " Dutch and 
Quaker Colonies " is entitled " The Migrations of the Sects." 
In it he traces the causes of the Huguenot exodus from France, 
the G-erman outpouring from the Palatinate, the flight of the 
Jews from Spain and the Netherlands, that of the Scotch-Irish 
from Ulster, and recounts their settlements in the colonies, re- 
calling in many cases the marks they have left in local names, 
or the parts they have pla3^ed in our later history. 

In class treatment this matter might best be taken as a review 
with the new facts added by the teacher. Thus, after detailing 
the atrocious policy of Louis XIV toward the Huguenots, the 
teacher may put questions : Which colony will be most likely to 
attract them? Why so? Why not New England? Pull an- 
swers will recall the facts of social and industrial development 
as well as those of political and religious freedom. Considera- 
tions of climate also affected their choice of region in which to 
settle. New England did receive a good many Huguenots. 
What marks have they left in names or deeds in New England ? 
Speak of Faneuil Hall, Bowdoin Square, the Olneys and Dab- 
neys, etc. New York shows more marks — Desbrosses Street, 
New Eochelle, the Jays and Laurens, etc. South Carolina re- 
ceived many more. 

NUMBER 

Enlarge the map of the Middle Atlantic States to double its 
size in the same manner as the enlargement of the map of the 
Southern States was carried out last month. 

Make a day and night chart for the 3^ear like the following : 



HouKs or THE Day 




en ^* ^ «< 



NUMBER ^ 145 

Problems in foods will facilitate the cooking class and bring 
out the ratios of the elementary constituents in the common 
articles of diet. It would be best to represent these percentages 
by measurements on the sides of square rods whose length rep- 
resents 100 per cent. 

Calculate the density of population to the square mile in each 
of the Middle Atlantic States. Find the total population of the 
section and the density of population for the whole section. 
List all towns with over 10,000 people in the order of their size. 

Teach the extraction of the square root and then have charts 
prepared to represent the relative size of towns by circles. For 
this purpose extract the square root of the number representing 
the population. Use the scale of one thousand to eight units of 
the square root. Find the radius of the circle in each case by 
dividing the square root of the population by eight. The quo- 
tient will be the number of millimeters in the radius. Construct 
the circles and fill in the area of the circle with India ink, or cut 
out the circles and print the names of the towns on them. 

If the method of representation is continued for all the other 
cities of the country, the cut-out circles will be best, since they 
will be more easily handled and compared. These circles may 
have pictures of scenes in the cities pasted on them, or facts and 
statistics printed on them. Of course if larger circles are wanted 
for this purpose, use a larger scale ; one millimeter to every four 
units of the square root of the population. When these circles 
are all ready for the whole United States, a favorite exercise 
with the children is to place each at its proper position on the 
floor map. 

In the Mines and Metallurgy Building of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase Exposition the following statistics were presented by Penn- 
sylvania : 



146 JANUARY 

Anthracite District. Originally, Tons Already Mined, Tons 

Lehigh 1,600,000,000 602,775,645 

Schuylkill 12,200,000,000 1,194,591,185 

Wyoming 5,700,000,000 1,819,691,875 

How many tons remain unmined in each of the three great 
anthracite coal districts ? 

What is the total number of tons of anthracite estimated to 
have been in Pennsylvania ? 

How many tons in total have been mined? 

How many tons remain yet nnmined in the state ? 

If it is practicable to mine 60 per cent of the original coal, how 
many tons may yet be mined in each of the three regions ? 

What per cent of the coal in each of the three districts has 
been mined ? 

What per cent of the coal that may be mined has already been 
mined ? 

Make wooden cubes to represent these quantities of coal, using 
the scale of one cubic millimeter to represent one thousand tons 
of coal. This will involve the extraction of the cube root. It 
may be best for the present to do this for the pupils and not 
attempt to teach the process in this grade. When the cubes are 
made, paint them coal black and on each, in white paint, put the 
quantity that it represents. 

In Macfarlane's " The World^s Commerce and American In- 
dustries,^' published by the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, 
1903, will be found much valuable statistical material graphically 
presented in chart form. In the new Statistical Atlas of the 
Twelfth Census, published by the Census Bureau, there is a great 
wealth of chart, map, and diagram presentation of the statistics 
of the last census. 

The teacher can readily choose or adapt what is wanted from 
these rich mines of material. But in any case, such material 
should be chosen as is needed by the interests of the children to 
make definite their mental images in nature stvidy, weather, 

% 



LANGUAGE 147 

geography, or some other study. If processes in these problems 
require drill for familiarity and rapidity, do not hesitate to give 
it. The pupil in the elementary grades should never look upon 
his mathematics as a body of knowledge learned for its own sake, 
but always as a method of reducing to exactness in measurement 
his concepts of the material world. 

LANGUAGE 

In" all the work thruout the year hold up the ideal of saying 
much in few words. Aim at simple constructions and short 
sentences. In condensing, however, do not omit important 
thought. 

We lose a great deal of time and waste energy by not having 
the pupils correct their own or one another's papers. Ee-writ- 
ing the thought in other and better form is for them more 
valuable than to rush on to ever new thought. Struggling 
with the form of thought and modeling it into better form 
is the best practice. Here the teacher's part will consist in 
suggesting where and how to make changes, by combining here 
and separating there, indicating connection by a proper con- 
junction, condensing by the use of a more appropriate word, 
re-arranging the order of thought to follow a simpler plan, 
turning the account into direct discourse, punctuating or para- 
graphing differently, etc. 

In enlarging the vocabulary of the pupils, do not teach 
definitions. Teach the children to use the words correctly by 
using them yourself frequently in the lesson, asking and an- 
swering questions that involve the use of the expressions to be 
learned. In many cases a child will hesitate to use an expres- 
sion simply because it sounds unfamiliar to him. If, however, 
he has the sound ringing in his ears, he will inevitably fall into 
its use. Teach the spelling in connection with all new expres- 



148 JANUARY 

sions. Sometimes what is most needed is simply practice in 
pronunciation till the child knows the sound familiarly. 

For January the Atlases may contain condensed accounts of 
the settlement of each colony south of the Connecticut; letters 
from a colonist in one colony to a friend in another colony; 
correspondence between members of a family, part of whom 
have settled in Pennsylania, leaving others in England or Ire- 
land or the German Palatinate ; lists of articles we use every day 
that the people in none of the colonies had; description of life 
in Jamestown with Capt. John Smith, with Nathaniel Bacon, 
in Charleston in the pirate days, in St. Mary^s when it was the 
capital of Maryland, in New Amsterdam with Peter the Head- 
strong, in Philadelphia with William Penn; the enlarged map 
of the Middle Atlantic States; the map of the colonies with 
boundaries as they were in 1675, and another map to show 
the boundaries and additions till the peace of Utrecht; a 
list of the additions to knowledge of North America made 
between 1600 and 1700; papers on the chief industries of the 
Middle Atlantic States; charts showing statistics of the Middle 
Atlantic States; the diagram of the day's length thruout the 
year; a paper on foods, including also the nature of stimulants 
and their abuse; and a great many pictures. All the written 
papers should be illustrated. The pictures will include scenes 
in the different colonies, old colonial furniture, tools, dress, 
ships, houses at Jamestown and at New Amsterdam, scenes on 
the Virginia plantations, William Penn's Treaty with the In- 
dians, a birdseye view of New Amsterdam from the English 
ships as they come to anchor near Governor's Island, Sept. 4, 
1664, etc. 

Grammar 

The use of the infinitive as a noun claims our attention in 
January. The simplest construction is that with the infinitive 



THE ARTS 149 

as subject of the finite verb. In the other construction the 
infinitive is in the predicate as an object complement. Bring- 
out clearly its noun nature, the name of the act or state of being 
denoted by the verb from which the infinitive is derived. The 
infinitive is a form to be used in a noun construction. The 
word " to "' before the simple verb form is called the sign of 
the infinitive. In the constructions for January this sign is 
always present. 

Use no definitions, but teach everything by example and 
use. Let the questions always refer to actual sentences. 

It is a very good plan to have the infinitives picked out in a 
selection from the reading book till the children get used to 
the form and the name. The general notion develops of itself 
if instances enough are provided. 

THE ARTS 

Music 

The songs for the month are " Eing out, Wild Bells," " Kind 
Words Can Never Die," "Abide with Me," " Come, Come 
Away." The difficulties in these songs will furnish the exer- 
cises for the month. All the old songs must be kept fresh by 
frequent rehearsal as occasions may offer. 

In beating time to the singing, do not beat time like a metro- 
nome ; but let the movement gesture the note and symbolize the 
singing. It is well, too, for the children to join in appropriate 
movements or gestures to accompany the songs. 

The exercise known as spelling and pronouncing chords is 
excellent to familiarize with the different chords : Divide the 
class into three parts; let section one hold do, section two hold 
mi, section three hold sol. Let the first section hold soh the 
second section hold t% and the third section hold re. Sing all 



150 JANUARY 

the chords similarly. This may be made more difficult by using 
the syllable " la '^ or " ah " in place of the scale names. 

Let the children write songs from memory after learning to 
sing them. Have them transpose to different keys. 

Frequently give an exercise like this : Write the notes on the 
staff for the key of C, and sing them, using the syllable names. 
Add one sharp to the signature, and now sing them. Add two 
sharps, three sharps, four sharps ; one flat, two fiats, three flats, 
and four flats, and sing, using the proper syllable names. 

A frequent use of Dr. Palmer's Modulator will be of great 
value in fixing the scale intervals and training to keep the pitch. 

Continue the ear-training in major and minor exercises. 
Begin the writing of relative minor scales. 

In written tests do not ask for definitions. Let the directions 
be such as the following : 

1. Write the scale in the key of D. Indicate that it is to be 

sung very softly and slowly. 

2. Write four measures in J time, using half-note, quarter- 

note, and eighth-note; key of F. 

3. Insert the bars in a given piece of music to correspond with 

the time signature. 

4. Write the following tones in the key of B-flat: 5, 6, 5, 1, 2, 1, 
i 2^7,2^6,4,5,3,1. ' 

5. Write the chromatic scale beginning with C. 

If possible at all give the children the opportunity of hearing 
artistic singing by invited soloists. 

Drav^ing 

Outline drawing for purposes of illustration, as I have been 
advocating it, bears the same relation to art training that 
simple English prose composition or conversational English 



THE ARTS 151 

bears to training in a literary career as a poet, historian, or 
novelist. If we drop the waste of time on the idle frills of 
so-called art instruction, we shall thereby gain time for the basis 
of all, which is practice in free-hand drawing that secures man- 
ual training in grace and accuracy, and eye-training to see dis- 
tinctly and treasure up visual images. This is within the reach 
of all, just as is the use of prose English. 

Each month several objects should be chosen for special drill 
practice in drawing from different points of view, and the prac- 
tice should be continued till they can be drawn correctly in any 
position from memory. Thus give a week or two to practice on 
a horse, or dog, or chicken, or boat, or house, or tree, or land- 
scape. This practice drill must of course be made from the 
object itself, or from mounted animals or plaster casts. Of 
course without these, practice may be had on the human figure 
and other common objects that are at hand, but choice is then 
more restricted and inconvenient. 

As a special point to clear up let simple perspective claim our 
attention for a while. For this purpose have interiors of rooms 
or exteriors of houses drawn where the converging parallels are 
numerous. There is really no difficulty at all in learning per- 
spective, but one must have experience and practice to be able 
to use perspective correctly in memory drawings. 

Making 

Make clay or sand models of Jamestown, New Amsterdam, 
Charleston, Philadelphia, to as large a scale as possible on the 
sand table. Pasteboard houses filled with plaster-of-paris and 
painted on the outside to show windows, doors, stone, shingle 
roof, logs, portico, or other features look well, and stay in their 
places and retain their shape. Be sure to keep the same scale 
in representing all parts of your settlement. Pieces of colored 



152 JANUARY 

sponge stuck on wire or sticks make very good-looking trees, 
while finely cut bits of paper or very short bits of coarse hair 
thickly sprinkled over meadows wet with glue and afterward 
covered with green paint readily suggest grass or weeds and 
bushes. 

Model similarly a Virginia tobacco plantation on the James. 
Make a Dutch house as large and in as much detail as your 
time will permit you to finish. 

Make and cut out paper dolls to represent the colonists. 




NATURE STUDY 



In" February make a special study of some of the animal 
communities, as, for example, an ants' nest or a bce-liive. In 
order to have in the schoolroom an ants' nest in working order 
in February, it must be prepared carefully in the autumn and 
tended during the winter months. The most convenient nest 
is made of cement covered with glass. This allows all the activi- 
ties of the creatures to be readily observed thru the glass top, 
without affording the ants any opportunity to escape. When 
not under observation the nest should be covered with black 
cloth to exclude the light. 

Be sure to secure a whole colony of the ants, or their life 

activities will be incomplete and the work unsatisfactory. They 

need more or less moisture, and may be fed on syrup, candy, 

bread crumbs, or sugar. If the nest is properly managed, you 

153 



154: FEBRUARY 

will have a most fascinating presentation of an insect com- 
munity, with storehouse, nursery, general dump for rubbish, 
and the open runway of the burrow. While there are any pupas 
to attend to, they absorb the interest of the ants and receive 
constant and anxious attention. 

For fuller directions as to managing ants' nests, see Hodge's 
"Nature Study and Life," Comstock's "Insect Life,'' and 
Jordan & Kellogg's "Animal Life." Lubbock's "Ants, Bees, 
and Wasps " gives a very faithful account of painstaking experi- 
ments with ants, and many of the devices used are applicable to 
the schoolroom. 

If the ants' nest or bee-hive is impracticable for your work 
in February, make a card catalog collection of insect pictures 
arranged systematically by families and orders. Beautiful col- 
ored plates of many butterflies and moths, beetles and grass- 
hoppers are easily available, and these, with many more wood- 
cuts and half-tones, may be pasted on cards of a uniform size, 
and all arranged systematically by orders, families, and genera. 
Such a collection is very easily managed, and is much more 
easily preserved and handled than a collection of dried speci- 
mens, while it is almo-st as serviceable for purposes of identifi- 
cation and survey. 

With such a survey collection the eyes will be sharper on 
the lookout when the spring opens and insects begin their 
new year. For reference in this systematic work the best book 
will be found to be Comstock's "A Manual for the Study of 
Insects," published by the Comsto-ck Publishing Company, Ith- 
aca, ]^. Y. 

In February and March the children should make a collec- 
tion of the cocoons, chrysalids, and other winter stages of in- 
sects, and put them in insect cages ready to hatch out in the 
warm. 

Our other topic for February is hygiene. It is intended to 

% 



NATURE STUDY 155 

gather together here in the month all the important points to 
which children should have their attention directed in regard 
to care of their health : The function of the skin ; the influence 
of dress ; the need of bathing ; the care of the teeth ; the pur- 
pose of food; the nature of stimulants, and the evil influence of 
alcohol and tobacco; the physiology of breathing; the hygiene 
with exercises to secure deep breathing; ventilation; posture 
in sitting and standing; what to do in case of accident, faint- 
ing, fire, or drowning; how a community helps to stamp out 
scarlet fever, smallpox, diphtheria, measles, or other epidemic ; 
the importance of forming good hygienic habits that give a 
robustness to the health, a clear head, and a light heart; the 
value of good, simple food, regular meals, plenty of sound sleep, 
pure air and deep breathing, pure water and plenty of it, sun- 
shine and life in the open air. 

Weather Eecord 

Besides continuing our daily record and following on the 
floor map the daily weather conditions as reported by the 
Government Weather Map, we find it desirable to give addi- 
tional time in February to the tracing of the course of the 
Highs and Lows across the country. Eecall the whirlwind char- 
acter of the Low and its suction tendency, and the reverse 
character of the High with its scattering tendency. TJse the 
terms Cyclone and Anticyclone, for these whirling areas of 
wind. 

From the weather maps read off the position of the Low, 
beginning with the first appearance of one on the Montana 
border and following it on successive days in its broad sweep 
to the southeast and then down the Valley of the St. Lawrence. 
Let its position each day be represented by one of the boya 
standing on that spot of the floor map. Similarly have the 



156 FEBRUARY 

successive positions of the High marked by girls standing on 
the map. Have others in the class describe in words very 
accurately this course of the High or Low as it moved across 
the country. Trace a dozen or more such cyclone and anti- 
cyclone movements across the country. Of course include the 
storm-centers that come up from the Gulf of Mexico as well. 

If each path thus represented be marked on the floor map in 
chalk, we shall have a graphic diagram of the general course 
of storms. Finish up the work by having a careful statement 
made of the origin of the storms and their general course across 
the United States. 

If the weather map comes to your school, you can have colored 
flags made to correspond with those used by. the Weather Bureau, 
and with these you can signal the weather indications to all 
within sight of your school. 



GEOGRAPHY 

The geography work for February embraces New England 
and the Valley of the St. Lawrence. 

Study first the physiographic features that the Indians and 
the early French and English explorers and fur-traders and 
settlers knew. List the prominent Indian names of lakes, rivers, 
and mountains; the French towns, lakes and rivers, mountains 
and islands; and the most important English names. On the 
floor map chalk in the water-sheds and bound the river valleys. 
Mark the head of navigation on each river. Note the good 
harbors and learn their names. 

Why are there so many lakes in this region? We found none 
south of Pennsylvania, and few in that state except in the 
extreme northern corners. 

What has made so many waterfalls ? 



GEOGRAPHY 157 

Are the mountains very old, or have they not been worn 
down very much since they were formed? 

What changes have caused these good harbors ? 

Contrast with the Carolina coast. 

Each of these topics should be pretty thoroly treated. In case 
of a, February thaw and warm spell that sends the ice and snow 
off in little rivers and lakes with miniature waterfalls bubbling 
over moraines left by the thawing " ice-sheet," the story of the 
great Ice Age may be made very real and clear. If no such 
thaw comes in February, utilize it w^henever it does come in 
March or April. If you are in the city and cannot see the 
annual " ice age " repeating its story undisturbed by human 
agency, then demonstrate the main points on the sand table 
by thawing out a mass of dirty snow and noting the resulting 
physiographic features. 

If the " Land of Lilliput " be covered with a mass of dirty, 
wet snow and be allowed to freeze, it will illustrate the Ice 
Age in North America very well. When brought again into the 
schoolroom, the great glacier will melt and deposit moraines, 
form rivers, lakes, waterfalls, and islands. The grinding, scrap- 
ing and gouging of the glacier may be illustrated by the action 
of the wet snow flowing off from the top of the snow heap before 
we let it freeze solid. The rising and sinking of the coast and 
so the formation of drowned river valleys may be charmingly 
illustrated at the mouth of the " Lion Eiver." 

This region of southeastern Canada and New England was 
all covered with forest when the settlers came, and the lumber 
products have been an important item ever since. Treat the 
related topics of sawmills, ship-building, paper mills, and the 
making of maple syrup. Make collections of pictures illustrat- 
ing these industries, and arrange them in a book or paste them 
on a large outline map. 

What rivers bring the logs down ? 



158 FEBRUARY 

What cities are centers for the manufacture of articles from 
lumber ? 

Eecall the study of the St. Lawrence Eiver in the fourth 
grade and note the effect it has had in making a thorofare to 
the interior of the continent; while New England, New Bruns- 
wick and Nova Scotia have had to depend more on their own 
local resources for their commerce. Montreal and Quebec are 
ports for ocean steamships, and they ship grain and cattle and 
lumber and furs that come from the interior of the continent, 
as well as the products of lower Canada. 

" In the middle of the eighteenth century, the entrances and 
clearances in the ports of Philadelphia and New York com- 
bined were just equal to those of Boston alone.^^* But the val- 
leys of New England extend northward to the Canadian 
frontier instead of reaching westward thru the Appalachian 
barrier. The opening of the West and the digging of the Erie 
Canal have carried westward a New England migration and 
transferred the commercial supremacy from Boston to New 
York. Boston was the commercial metropolis as long as the 
center of population was east of the Alleghenies. Now, altho 
there are many other good harbors, the railroads dominate inland 
transportation and make Boston the port for New England, 
while the great trunk lines of the United States pour the 
foreign commerce of the great Middle West into New York, and 
those of Canada pour it down the St. Lawrence. 

The decline of the old agriculture in New England, and the 
abandonment of the farms or the substitution of truck-farming, 
dairying and poultry-raising, have followed the expansion of 
the country to the westward and the development of the rich 
agriculture of the Mississippi Valley. 

Read from the daily newspapers of the sufferings of the fish- 
ermen, and shipwrecks of the fishing vessels off the banks. 

* Semple, " American History and Its Geographical Conditions," Chap. VII. 



GEOGRAPHY 159 

Mark on the floor map the chief manufacturing cities in New 
England, noting the reason for their growth, at the falls and at 
the head of navigation. Note conditions of obtaining the raw 
material for each of the chief manufactures, and the source of 
power. Scarcely any coal is mined in New England, but much 
is imported from Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia. The cotton 
manufactures of the South are increasing at the expense of 
those of New England. Which classes of manufactures are 
growing in New England? 

Mark on the floor map the chief quarries for granite, marble, 
slate, and brownstone. Get samples of these and pictures of the 
quarries. In the pictures of New England buildings note the 
kind of stone and the nearest source of supply. 

Study the cities and routes of travel with a Baedeker or other 
good and reliable guidebook at hand. Get the topographic sheets 
of the United States Geological Survey that belong to Massa- 
chusetts, Ehode Island, and Connecticut. By putting these 
together you will have a fine map, to the scale of one mile to the 
inch, showing the streets of the towns and such detail as will 
clearly individualize the places. This part of New England 
contains three-fourths of the population, and all the large towns. 
With Baedeker in hand plan trolley rides to places around 
Boston. 

With the help of Baedeker's " Canada," tour Canada and see 
the sights. Make a specially full study of Montreal, as the 
commercial metropolis of Canada, and of Quebec with its quaint 
touches of the old days. 

Halifax has a splendid harbor. Why has the town not de- 
veloped into a great Canadian port, greater than Montreal? 



160 FEBRUARY 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

During February we follow the settlement of New England 
by the English and of New France by the French. 

Eecall the early exploration along the North Atlantic coast 
from the Hudson northward to the St. Lawrence. Keep in 
mind the map of the time, with the Sea of Verrazano on it, and 
the narrow isthmus near the Chesapeake. Follow Captain John 
Smith, Cartier, and Champlain, noting the places they visited 
and the names that they added to the map. 

Study the work of Champlain in the founding of New France, 
and the work of Bradford and Winthrop in the founding of 
New England. Bring out all the striking differences in the 
character of the two provinces. 

Why were Plymouth and Boston stronger settlements than 
Quebec and Montreal ? 

Wherein lay the strength of the French manner of colonizing ? 

Wliy did the Algonkins fight the English but welcome the 
French ? 

Why were the Iroquois enemies of the French ? 

Treat the other New England colonies as offshoots from the 
Massachusetts colony, and emphasize the reasons for the dis- 
persals. Why did the New England colonies all unite in 1643? 
Bring out pretty clearly the material difficulties that colonists 
had to meet in founding a state in a savage wilderness. 

Just as tobacco supported the Chesapeake Bay settlements, 
and rice and indigo those in the Carolinas, so the New England 
colonists lived from their fisheries and their forests, while the 
French in Canada supported themselves by the fur-trade. 
Everywhere the French followed the rivers in their quest of 
peltries, and trafficked with the Indians. They seldom had any 
Indian wars for the verv 2:ood reason that their trade was an 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 161 

advantage to the Indians and did not take the land away from 
the aborigines. Their towns were frontier trading posts to 
which the Indians resorted for the very profitable exchange of 
goods. The French adapted themselves to the savage character 
and intermarried with the Indians, being adopted into their 
tribes. 

Fiske shows very clearly how Indian politics led to the early 
fighting between the Mohawks and the French as allies of the 
Algonkins, and how this grew into a lasting deadly hatred on 
the part of the powerful Iroquois. 

Why did not the Huguenots settle in I^ew France as did the 
Puritans in New England? Point out differences in the treat- 
ment and policy by the mother country in each case. 

" Thruout the colonial period and for the first four decades 
of the Eepublic the United States was dominated by the 
ocean.^^* The center of population was on the Atlantic slope 
till after 1830. The Appalachian barrier stretched along the 
entire length of the English settlements. The French, on the 
other hand, followed up the great river that reaches to the 
heart of North America and so came to the interior of the 
continent. 

The English came to make homes; they engaged in agricul- 
ture, fishing, and commerce : they felled the trees to make 
clearings, or for the lumber. For the English the Indians were 
so many wild animals encumbering the ground ; the sooner the 
savage creatures were driven out the better. Exploration went 
but little faster than settlement; but whatever regions were 
once settled by the English became English territory for the 
future. They were to increase, while the French and Span- 
ish were to decrease. 

The French and Spanish spread thinly over an immense ter- 
ritory held chiefly in military possession, with but few homes 

* Semple, " American History and Its Geographical Conditions," Chap. VIT. 



162 FEBRUARY 

and no local self-government. They sought to drain out the 
wealth of the land, for the mother country — the French thru 
the fur-trade and the Spanish thru the gold and silver. The 
reasons for the success of the English colonies and the failure 
of the French and Spanish should form one of the most im- 
portant and fully treated topics for the month. 

Compare also the several English colonies among themselves. 
Note the variations in the form of local self-government and 
act out the civil government by holding a Massachusetts town 
meeting. Let the acting out be a thoro lesson in civics, and take 
all the time necessary for it. Civics without history is almost 
unintelligible, and certainly misses much of the real motive for 
its study. 

Eead and commit Mrs. Hemans's '^.Landing of the Pilgrims,^' 
and portions of Whittier's poems on " The Merrimac Eiver.^' 
his "Mountain Pictures," his "Trailing Arbutus,'' "Banished 
from Massachusetts," "Among the Hills," "Tent on the 
Beach," and " Snow-Bound." 

It would be well to act out the dramatization of " The Court- 
ship of Miles Standish," which was presented to the children in 
the Fourth School Year. Stanley SchelFs "A Maid of 
Plymouth,"* is convenient and suggestive on costumes and 
acting. For details of dress and action, together with charm 
of face and figure, get the edition illustrated by Howard Chand- 
ler Christy, f 

Eead to the children from Kipling's Jungle Books. These 
books are admirable in giving the spirit of wild nature. They 
help us to picture and to feel the free, instinctive, merciless 
struggle for existence in the untamed life of the woods. It is 
with such conditions that the American colonists were brought 
into contact in the frontier settlements. In many ways Mowgli 

♦Published by E. S. Werner Co., 43 E. 19th "St., New York City. 
t Published by The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis, Ind. 



NUMBER 163 

may be taken to represent the American Indian, or even a 
frontiersman. 

NUMBER 

Enlarge the map of the New England States to double its 
size in the same manner as the enlargement of the previous 
sections has been carried out in the foregoing months. 

Cut out squares representing one hundred square miles, and 
ten thousand square miles, using the scale of the floor map. 
These will be a square inch and a ten-inch square respectively. 
Cut out forty of the former and twenty of the latter. 'Place 
these on the floor map to measure the area of the different 
states. You will find it desirable to have also one-inch strips, 
two-inch strips, three-inch strips, four-inch strips, five-inch 
strips, etc., of different lengths to fill in the portions not covered 
by the larger squares. With these units measure the areas of 
all the states, of the principal river basins, and of the physio- 
graphic sectioiis of the country. 

With the cut-out states as helping material, estimate the rela- 
tive size of pairs of states, judging by superposition. In this 
way take the ratio of each New England State to each of the 
other states of the country, and to each of the provinces in south- 
eastern Canada. 

Extract the square root of the area of each state and con- 
struct squares of Manila paper to represent such areas, using 
the scale of ten miles to an inch. Take the ratio of each New 
England State to each of the other states, using these squares 
as measurements. Compare similarly the area of the whole of 
New England with the area of each of the other states. 

Continue the construction of circles to represent the popula- 
tion of cities as was begun in January. 

Find what per cent of the total area of the United States is 



164 FEBRUARY 

contained in each state; in each section; in each drainage 
area. 

Calculate the density of population in each New England 
State and in the adjoining Canadian Provinces; find the total 
population of New England and of the region formerly called 
New France. 

LANGUAGE 

Rhyming is a good exercise that trains in the choice of words 
more than prose writing does. Children delight in finding 
words that rhyme with others. With a little encouragement 
and a good deal of example they will enjoy making couplets and 
imitating the meters of poems they know. St. Valentine's Day 
may be made a source of inspiration for original poetry and 
pictures. In all this work let the most familiar subjects of 
everyday life^ that the children are anyhow talking about, be 
chosen for the rhyming versification. 

For February the Atlases may contain condensed (some may 
make them rhymed) accounts of the settlement of each of the 
New England colonies ; an original play based on some episode 
in the colonial history, e. g., the Mayflower Compact, a children's 
party in colonial Massachusetts in 1636, or a town meeting; a 
story of the Great Eebellion in England and how it affected New 
England ; the map of the New England Colonies in 1643 and in 
1691; the enlarged map of the present New England States; 
papers on the chief industries of New England, the Ice Age, and 
the St. Lawrence Eiver; a list of Indian, French, and English 
names of lakes, rivers, mountains and islands in New England 
and New France; papers on Boston, Providence, Montreal, and 
Quebec; a comparison of Champlain in New France with Brad- 
ford and Winthrop in New England ; a record of observations on 
the ants' nest; and a paper on what to do to be strong and 
healthy. Most of these papers should be profusely illustrated. 



THE ARTS 165 

Enlarge and combine drawings from different sources. Thus, 
arrange a colonial Massachusetts kitchen, making the fireplace 
of paper, and, where the articles themselves cannot be obtained 
nor made, draw on cardboard and cut out to represent spinning- 
wheers7,ham and bacon and onions hanging from the rafters, a 
grand father^s clock, family portraits, a corner cupboard, etc. 

GrRAMMAR 

For February we study the infinitive in adjective and adverb 
constructions. The difficulty lies essentially in recognizing 
promptly what the infinitive modifies. Present the matter in 
its simplest form always. Work thru illustrative examples in- 
stead of thru explanations or definitions. Grade the illustrations 
from those that are clear and free from puzzling doubts up to 
those that require more care and contain added difficulties. The 
use of the infinitive as attribute complement is plainly of the 
latter kind. 



THE ARTS 

Music 

The songs for February are "The Blue Bells of Scotland,^' 
" The Battle Hymn of the Eepublic," and " My Old Kentucky 
Home.^' 

Practice on the two-part singing daily. A convenient device 
to use in directing these exercises is the finger-scale notation. 
The teacher holds up the left hand with the fingers spread apart, 
each finger representing a line of the staff from E on the little 
finger to F above on the thumb. The open spaces between the 
fingers represent the spaces F, A, C, E, on the staff. With two 
fingers of the right hand the teacher can point to the positions 



166 



FEBRUARY 




FINGER-SCALE NOTATION 

indicating what notes each division is to sing and in this way 
carry out any exercise in two-part work without the interrup- 
tion of a spoken word. 

Hodges's " The Rose Bush '^ (chorus part) is well adapted to 
easy two-part work. 

Drawing 



If outline drawing has been practiced in every recitation 
thru the previous months, the pupils may be allowed to do some 
brush work in water colors for February. They usually get the 



THE ARTS 



167 




WORKING MODEL OF OLD COLONIAL LOOM 



fever in anticipation of St. Valentine^s Da}^, and want to paint 
flowers and people for valentines. 

Most of the color work that I have seen at the St. Louis Ex- 
position and elsewhere in visiting schools is sham — a reaching 
after effect without mastering the difficulty. It requires vastly 
greater skill to handle the brush well than to draw with the 
pencil. I doubt thoroly whether the water-color work in the 
grades ever amounts to anything but a waste of time and an 
allurement to gaudy coloring at the expense of skill. In the 
outline drawing it is harder to sham off work that is unskillfully 



168 FEBRUARY 

done, and hence it is easier thru it to acquire the skill of putting 
shapes on paper. 

If some of the pupils find they have a native ability in using 
the brush, the time will not have been wholly wasted; but they 
are the only ones that should continue to spend their time at it, 
and they should attend art schools. For the public school we 
must limit our aim to what is obtainable by every one. 

The main work of February will, therefore, be outline draw- 
ing with pencil or with chalk. The ant will be drawn in magni- 
fied form and in characteristic postures. 

The study of hygiene will be illustrated by drawings of the 
teeth, diagrams of the chest in inhalation and in exhalation, and 
sketches showing proper postures in standing and in sitting. 

The lumbering industry will require drawings of pines, hem- 
locks, spruces, oaks, maples, etc. 

Draw a maple-sugar camp. 

Draw scenes illustrating lumbering, making paper, cotton 
spinning and weaving, quarrying, ship-building, etc. Draw the 
manufactured products — Yale locks, Britannia ware, jewelry, 
watches and clocks, carpenters' tools, etc. 

Draw outline likenesses of Captain John Smith, Cartier, 
Champlain, Bradford, Winthrop, John Alden, Priscilla, Miles 
Stand ish. 

Draw scenes from the plays, furniture, relics, dress, industries. 

Draw Indian scenes — Massasoit, the destruction of the Pe- 
quots, etc. 

Making 

Considerable work has already been suggested in preparing 
scenes for the plays. Plaster models of Boston and vicinity on 
the sand table, or of old Plymouth, with Governor Bradford's 
house, the fort, the town brook, Leyden Street, Priscilla's home, 
and Burial Hill, will repay the time and effort. 



THE ARTS 169 

Take a clock to pieces and see how it runs. Take a Yale 
lock to pieces and see how it works. As far as practicable, 
demonstrate the Yankee notions in ingenious appliances that 
have come from New England. 

Make a pasteboard (or a wooden) model of the old Craigie 
House, Cambridge, Mass. Other children might be engaged on 
Independence Hall, Philadelphia, or on Washington's Home 
at Mount Vernon. 




NATURE STUDY 



Continue the February study of the ice-sheet. When the 
thaw comes the children should be ready to see and recognize all 
the principal features of the retreating " ice age." The work 
on the " Lion Eiver Glacier " should be a preparation for this 
observation out of doors. Teach the remnant of the Great Ice 
Sheet in the Greenland Ice Sheet and the other Arctic Ice Caps. 

Note especially the drainage from the melting ice. Some 
streams will be found to be flowing over the ice and melting out 
a channel ; others will be found to have made their way under- 
ground and come to the surface again from mimic ice grottos 
farther on. 

Notice the deposition of dirt by the melting ice, the damming 
up of streams and the forming of lakes and waterfalls 

Take photographs of such scenes for further study indoors. 
Give such mimic lakes, rivers, glaciers, waterfalls, and grottos 
suggestive names, as the chih^^v^"*^ lo^c to Co so. 

170 



NATURE STUDY 171 

Make a detailed study of pond life. The plants, animals, and 
water of the pond, with the soil of its bed and of its drainage 
area, form a mutually interdependent community. If you are 
out of the area of lakes, you may make a very successful study 
of similar conditions in the schoolroom aquarium. Be sure, 
first of all, that you have made it as nearly self-sustaining as 
possible. There must be water plants growing in the water, 
fish and snails to represent the animal life, and sand on the 
bottom for the water plants to root in. If vorticellas, fresh- 
water hydras, spirogyras, etc., can be included, so much the 
better. 

Aim to bring out the mutual dependence of each of these 
creatures on the others for the continuance of its life conditions. 
See Friedrich Junge's '' Der Dorfteich als Lehensgemeinschaft " 
(Kiel and Leipsic). Study the life activities of each member 
of the community. If the contents of the aquarium are so 
chosen that the whole is self-supporting, it will need no other 
care than to be shielded from disturbance and perhaps to have 
an occasional bit of food put into it for the fishes. 

The School Garden 

While it may not be practicable at your home to plant any- 
thing out of doors in March, such is not the case in all localities. 
Preparations for the flower and vegetable garden must be begun 
in March or even in February, in order to have everything as 
early as possible and as much done as can be before the close 
of school in June. Follow the advice given in "The Fourth 
School Year " in regard to preparation for the school garden in 
March. Especially important is it to enlist the interest and the 
assistance of those in the neighborhood Avho know perhaps more 
than the teacher does from practical experience. 

Trees may be transplanted as soon as the frost is out of 



172 MARCH 

the ground. Some weeks had better be spent in studying the 
subject of soils. The physical and chemical properties of soil 
may be made very clear, the former concerning drainage of 
water and circulation of air, the latter having regard to the 
plant food that the roots absorb. The chief ingredients of local 
soils should be known before the outdoor work is begun. Sam- 
ples of the fertilizers should be obtained and the main con- 
stituents of plant food should be known. 

Consult " How to Make School Gardens/^ by H. D. Hemen- 
way, and " How to Make a Flower Garden." * H. Ellwanger's 
"The Garden^s Story" (Appleton) will also be found useful for 
the teacher's reading. " Children's Gardens for School and 
Home" is a manual of cooperative gardening by Louise Klein 
Miller, published by Appleton. 

Have the children write papers on their favorite flowers and 
what they know about the care of plants, describing their own 
efforts in this line. Distribute seeds of favorite flowers, and plan 
for a competitive flower show in May or June. Give a lesson 
on preparation of soil and the best way to plant and water. Have 
plants in the schoolroom windows, and note how the plants re- 
spond to difference in soil, watering, sunlight, and warmth. See 
Hodge's " Nature Study and Life," Chapter VI. 

Weather Eecord 

The special topic for March is rainfall. Find the total rain- 
fall for each of the preceding months. Compare with the aver- 
age rainfall as given by the Monthly Weather Keview. The 
Weather Bureau publishes a meteorological atlas of twenty-four 
maps giving summaries, maximums, and minimuriis for the last 
twenty-four years (price $2.50). With this atlas the annual 
and monthly rainfall of any part of the country may be studied. 

* Both publish.ed by Doubleday. Page & Co., " How to Make School Gardens," 
price $1.00. " How to Make a Flower Garden," price $1.60. 



GEOGRAPHY I'^S 

In what month does the greatest amount of rain fall in your 
locality? the least? 

On the floor map draw the lines bounding the areas of equal 
rainfall as given on the annual rainfall summary. Ask pupils 
to step out on the map and, while standing in each of these 
areas successively, to describe in words its rain conditions and to 
name states involved in the area. The pupils may represent 
graphically the average annual rainfall in these areas by indi- 
cating with the finger on a decimal ruler. Correlate these areas 
with the drainage areas of the great rivers of North America. 

The Weather Bureau sends out also a weekly Ice and Snow 
Bulletin during the winter months. With these the annual ice 
sheet may be studied as it sweeps down on us from the north in 
the autumn, as well as when it is withdrawing to the north in 
the spring. 

The Weather Bureau also issues from its Washington Office 
a daily weather map, Form C, showing the daily rainfall areas. 
These are of great value for teaching correct ideas of the extent 
of the various storms. Pupils may be called out to represent on 
the floor map these storm areas — the boys to stand on stations 
where there was rain, and the girls to take the other positions. 
In case of storms bringing snow in some regions and rain in 
others, have the boys represent rain and the girls snow areas. 

Arrange in jars water to correspond in depth to the rainfall 
of the months. One series of jars should show the average rain- 
fall for past years. The rainfall for each current month may 
then be compared with this standard. 

GEOGRAPHY 

During March we study the region of the Great Lakes and 
the Mississippi Valley. 

Eecall the fourth-grade work on the Great Lakes and the 



174 MARCH 

portages to the Mississippi Valley. Mark out on the floor map 
all of these " carries " in the order in which the French discov- 
ered and used them. Note and list the Indian, French, English, 
and German geographical proper names. Recall the work on the 
Great Ice Sheet, and mark its boundaries. Eecall the chief 
effects produced by the Ice Sheet. 

Regard the chain of the Great Lakes as the upper part of the 
St. Lawrence River, which therefore starts with the St. Louis 
stream at Duluth. Lake Michigan makes a large tributary from 
the south. The main stream passes thru the " Soo,^' past 
Detroit, over Niagara, and out thru the midst of the Thousand 
Islands. 

The lake bottoms are all so shallow that, if drained, they 
would present a vast plain, with hardly a variation from the 
horizontal that the eye could detect.* If Lake Superior were 
represented by a lake a mile long, its depth would be two and 
one-half feet. The Lake Erie basin is still more shallow and 
level. The lakes are blocked river valleys, altho the gouging 
of the glacier and the tilting of the land have probably con- 
tributed to their formation. 

The chief drainage of the Great Lakes was once thru Lake 
Michigan and the Illinois River; then it was shifted to the 
Mohawk Valley and the Hudson River; later still it went by 
way of the Ottawa River and the St. Lawrence River. All the 
chief water partings have probably served at some stage of the 
changes as outlets for the lakes formed behind the low height 
of land, as the glacier melted away on their northern side. 
Trace these outlets from Lake Superior, from Lake Michi- 
gan, from Lake Erie, from Lake Ontario, and from Lake 
Huron. Identify them with the portages and later with the 
routes of canals. 

All of this is of vital importance to have in mind in order to 

* See Brigham's " Geographical Influences in American History," p. 115. 



GEOGRAPHY 175 

understand the utilization of this great fresh-water Mediter- 
ranean for inland commerce. The construction of the Erie 
Canal, reaching Lake Erie above Niagara Falls, left to Canada 
the work of digging the Welland Canal. The " Soo " Canal, 
opened in 1856, deepened to a ship canal in 1877, deepened again 
to twenty feet in 1896, developed its full importance only when 
it reduced the cost of transportation by admitting large vessels. 
Its effects then were far-reaching. It brought about the transfer 
of the iron industry from the eastern side to the western side of 
the Alleghenies. Since 1881 iron ore has formed about one- 
half the tonnage thru the canal.* The westbound traffic in coal 
is carried at the very low rate of thirty cents per ton to Duluth. 
The coal, iron ore, flour, and grain make up the chief commodi- 
ties that pass thru the " Soo," making its tonnage larger than 
that of the Suez Canal, and nearly half as large as the combined 
tonnage of our Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. 

" The value of the Mississippi as a waterway," says Semple, 
" is enhanced greatly by the fact that it traverses the United 
States across the constricted area between the Lakes and the 
Gulf, while these two Mediterraneans, fresh and salt, find 
their value enhanced in turn by the connecting waterway 
of the mighty stream." There are two states each of which 
would reach from Chicago on Lake Michigan to the Gulf> of 
Mexico. 

On the floor map mark the head of navigation in the Missis- 
sippi and in each of its navigable tributaries. Note the causes 
of the growth of towns. Most large cities are situated where 
two or more important lines of transportation converge, or cross. 
Note this crossing of lines at Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit-, St. 
Louis, Duluth, Toronto, Winnipeg, etc. 

Treat all the great industries of the Central West with, con- 
siderable fullness. Eemember that this is the most American 

* See Semple's " American History and Its Geographical Conditions," Chap. XIIL 



176 MARCH 

part of America, as Mr. Bryce asserts. The size of the region 
and the enormous scale of industrial activity have had a dom- 
inant force in making us a great nation with large ideas. It is 
of course chiefly an agricultural region, but with the greatest 
lumber areas in the country included. It embraces the greatest 
coal, petroleum, iron, copper, and building stone deposits in the 
continent. This region contains the greatest manufactures of 
agricultural machinery, of furniture, of wagons, of iron and 
steel, of flour, of tobacco, and has the greatest plants for the 
slaughtering of cattle and the packing of meats. 

On the floor map pupils may take their positions at the chief 
trade centers and play the game of inland commerce, making 
out invoices of goods to be shipped by boat or railway. Other 
pupils may represent the various transportation companies and 
distribute the goods. The game ends with the comparison of 
shipments and receipts by the different cities. Statistics for 
this purpose are to be found in the Census Reports, in the Com- 
mercial Geographies, but the best, most detailed and freshest 
material is to be sought in the very valuable Monthly Summary 
of Commerce and Finance of the United States, published by 
the Department of Commerce and Labor. • 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

In March we study the French exploration of the region of 
the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. 

ISTote the order in which the portages were discovered and used 
by the French. Marquette and Joliet went by way of Green Bay 
and the Wisconsin Eiver; La Salle went by Lake Michigan and 
the Illinois River. After the founding of Detroit in 1701 to 
overawe the neighboring Iroquois, the Lake Erie portages came 
into use, the western ones first. It was not till the middle of 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 177 

the eighteenth centui\y that the French began to draw their 
lines closer around the back of the English settlements^ and then 
the portage to French Creek and the Allegheny Kiver led the 
way to the forks of the Ohio. 

Use Fiske^s chapter on " Wilderness and Empire/^ in his 
" New France and New England/' Keep in mind the fact that 
the explorers were still hunting for a passage thru to the Pacific, 
and were more or less expecting to reach China if they could 
find westward-flowing rivers. When Champlain sent Nicollet 
in 1634 to find out what was meant by the repeated stories of 
large bodies of water to the westward and of a strange people 
without hair or beard, the explorers took with them Chinese 
garb and presents. The town of La Chine and the rapids in the 
St. Lawrence just above Montreal recall the same idea in con- 
nection with La Salle's expeditions. 

Make La Salle the central figur? in the story. Arrange with 
the five acts as in a drama : 

I. The great pageant of 1671 at Sault Sainte Marie when the 
French svmbolized their taking possession of the North- 
west. 
II. Marquette on the Mississippi in 1673. 
III. La Salle's dream of a Wilderness Empire ; he founds Fort 

Crevecoeur. 
lY. The disasters of 1679-1681; La Salle's terrible winter 
walk of one thousand miles to Montreal ; the mutiny and 
desertion at Crevecoeur; the capture of the mutineers on 
Lake Ontario; the Iroquois on the warpath. 
V. The finding of Tonty by La Salle at Mackinaw, and 
their canoe trip of a thousand miles to Fort Frontenac ; 
their winter journey to the head of Lake Michigan and 
down the Illinois and Mississippi ; the planting of the 
fnirs-de-Us at the mouth ; and finally the attempt to 
found a city. 



178 MARCH 

Many of the scenes lend themselves to acting out. This 
will, perhaps, in places be possible in the open air on picnics. 
Let the names Frontenac, Niagara, Crevecoeur, Chicago, Mack- 
inaw, Sault Sainte Marie, etc., be applied to localities in the 
neighborhood that resemble them, or may be taken to represent 
them in play. 

Eead to the children from Parkman's " La Salle and the 
Discovery of the Great West.^^ For the facts and bearings use 
Fiske's " Kew France and New England." 

Following the work last month on New England, Longfellow's' 
" New England Tragedies " present a realistic picture of the 
New England that was contemporary with the explorations of 
La Salle. Do not weary your pupils with rehearsals, in present- 
ing the plays of John Endicott and Giles Cory of the Salem 
Farms, but let the children take the parts and act from your 
prompting. You read each speaker's part in turn while he or 
she repeats after you — or, rather, with you — the words to be 
said. All the acting and the scenery should be merely such as to 
assist in the understanding of the story. Magnify the acting 
and minimize, improvise, or imagine the scenery and the furnish- 
ings. The whole presentation is made but once, and has all the 
appearance of a rehearsal. 

Encourage the selection of such pieces to memorize for the 
Friday Afternoon Literary Society as Whittier's "The Quaker 
of the Olden Time " and " Calef in Boston." Eead to the class 
the beautiful poem of " Mabel Martin." 

NUMBER 

Enlarge the map of the Central States to double its size, 
using the method already learned in the work on the Gulf States, 
Middle Atlantic States, and New England. 

Draw the school garden to scale, using the metric system 
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MONTHLY SHIPMENT OF GRAIN ON THE GREAT LAKES 

Explain these seasonal variations in the amount of grain shipped.) 



180 MARCH 

thruout. Two sizes will be needed — one large map for class 
use and smaller individual maps for the pupils. In this work 
do not confuse the children and make needless calculations by 
mixing the metric measurements with feet and inches. Have 
every measurement in the garden or on either map made in 
meters^ centimeters, or millimeters. Have no calculation what- 
ever of equivalents from one system to the other. Let the 
children realize in their calculations the immense advantage of 
the metric system, and get them used to thinking in its units. 

For the large map use such a scale as will give a map about 
a meter long by fifty or sixty centimeters wide. For the smaller 
map the dimensions should be about twenty centimeters by 
thirty centimeters. Choose such scales as will give about these 
sizes. Try to have either the large or the small map to the 
scale of 1 :100. Success in teaching decimals requires that the 
devices for utilizing place- values in the decimal system of nota- 
tion shall everywhere be employed. Decimals should be taught 
with the metric system for the same reason. 

Find the area of the. school garden in square meters. 

Express the area in ares or in centares. 

Calculate the area of each of the individual garden beds, the 
flower beds, the walks, reserved portions, etc., and make out a 
table showing the percentage of the whole, garden that each of 
these portions occupies. 

On a chart divided into square centimeters draw a square to 
scale (1:100 if possible), representing the area of the garden. 
Within this square mark out rectangles to correspond with the 
areas of the various divisions of the garden. The resulting 
chart will give a graphic presentation of the proportions of the 
entire area taken by each division of the garden. 

From the rainfall record for your home region, calculate the 
percentage of the annual rainfall of each month. From the 
meteorological atlas of the Weather Bureau calculate the 



NUMBER 181 

seasonal percentages for other typical regions of the United 
States; e. g., for Los Angeles, for Portland, Ore., for Denver^ 
for Detroit, for Mobile, for Boston, etc. Graphic charts should 
also be made by dividing circles into sectors to correspond with 
the seasonal percentages. 

From the '^ Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance " 
prepare a chart showing the percentage of ore, grain, coal, etc., 
shipped by each of the chief lake ports. Make another one 
showing the percentage of these articles received by the various 
chief lake ports. This may be graphically represented on the 
map by drawing the stream of ore, of grain, or of coal to scale 
in width and letting this stream branch off to the various ports 
in widths proportioned to the receipts of the ports. This chart 
will give a strikingly impressive presentation of Lake Commerce. 

Continue the Construction of circles to represent the popula- 
tion of cities in the Mississippi Valley and Lake Region. 

Find what per cent of the total area of the United States is 
contained in this section; in each state of this section; in each 
of the great drainage areas. 

Calculate the density of population in each of the Central 
States; find the total population of the entire Mississippi Val- 
ley ; of the entire St. Lawrence Valley ; of the Lake Region in- 
cluding the Canadian provinces adjoining. 



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184 MARCH 



LANGUAGE 



Wu Ting-fang, the former Chinese Minister to the United 
States, astonished a young woman in Washington by his ready 
use of good English, and she said to him : " Why, you speak 
English as well as I do ! " 

"I speak it better than you do," he replied, with his usual 
frankness. " I have learned my English from Shakspeare, Mil- 
ton, Goldsmith, and Burke, while your English, like that current 
at this time in this country, is compounded of all the slang from' 
the counting-house, the factory, the school-yard, and the race- 
track. My English has been learned from the masters of the 
language, while the English speech commonly heard in English- 
speaking countries is largely made by the careless and il- 
literate." 

To learn to speak correctly children that cannot be kept from 
hearing bad English must commit a great deal of good English 
to memory. Children delight in the presentation of dialogs. 
They can easily be induced to commit to memory correct forms 
of everyday English in such ways. The repeated rehearsal of 
such dialogs, expressly arranged to furnish the correct colloquial 
English, will do more to form correct habits of saying "have 
gone," " I saw him," " he and I are going to use those books 
over there," " she could find it nowhere," etc., than any learning 
of grammar rules will effect. Children usually select poetry for 
committing to memory. It is desirable that they be induced to 
commit more prose from classic authors. Some descriptions 
in Parkman's " La Salle " or in Fiske's " New France and New 
England" (e.g., the pageant at the Sault Sainte Marie in 
1671), or portions from Kipling's Jungle Books, will be likely 
to have much useful influence in developing their " sentence 
sense," as well as accustoming them to correct grammar. 



THE ARTS 185 

For March the Atlases may contain a paper on the retreating 
"ice age'' outdoors; an account of life in a lake or in the 
school aquarium ; a summary of the work done in the study of 
soils and fertilizers; the plan and scale drawing of the school 
garden; an outline map showing the average annual rainfall in 
different parts of the United States; a map of the United 
States showing the head of navigation in each of the navigable 
rivers; the charts and maps showing statistics of the Lake Com- 
merce; the density of population and the percentages of areas 
in the Central States ; a tourist's account of one or more of the 
chief cities of the Middle West (made up from all available 
sources, especially guide-books and pictures) ; a paper on each 
of the five acts in the drama of La Salle; and an abundance of 
pictures. 

Grammar 

In March and April we study the participle. First make 
clear its use when combining verb nature with adjective nature. 
Its verb nature is shown in its government of complements, its 
being modified by such adverbs as regularly accompany verbs, 
or its derivation from a verb. Its adjective nature is shown in 
its modifying a noun or pronoun. 

Bring out these points clearly and concretely in each participle 
considered. Teach the three participles, present, past, and 
perfect, together with their formation. 

THE ARTS 

Music 

For March the songs are " Jerusalem the Golden," " Kow 
the Day Is Over," and " Eobin Adair." 

Continue the previous exercises on the minor scale, two-part 



186 MARCH 

singing, and ear-training. Have the children write easy melo- 
dies with words from hearing. 

Drawing 

Draw fishes in different swimming positions, side views and 
top views ; snails in and out of their shells ; robins, ducks, geese ; 
ice-age landscapes at the March thaws; views of cities (copied 
in outlines) ; pictures of products and manufactures of the Cen- 
tral States; diagrams and pictures of processes of manufacture, 
freight steamers on the Lakes, grain elevators, cattle, sheep, 
hogs, heads of wheat, barley, rye, cornstalks, iron blast-furnaces, 
river steamers on the Ohio and the Mississippi, Kentucky horses, 
the reaping machine, the binder, the thrashing machine, farm 
scenes on the prairies, lumbering scenes, the great pageant of 
1671 at the " Soo,'' Marquette on the Mississippi in 1673, Fort 
Crevecoeur, scenes from La Salle's explorations and disasters in 
1679-1681, his trip down the Illinois and the Mississippi to the 
Gulf, the planting of the fleurs-de-lis at the mouth of the river, 
all the scenes from " The New England Tragedies," etc. 

Making 

Lay out a plan of the school garden on the sand table, and 
divide it into beds by strings stretched from nail to nail at the 
corners of the beds. Use a definite scale in all of this laying 
out, so that it will be of the same nature as the work on the 
real school garden to be cared for next month. 

The children should make some bird-boxes and put them in 
place in the trees or on poles, or on sheltered walls where cats 
cannot reach them. 

Try making a model of a reaping machine. Even if you do 
not succeed in making it reap, you: can succeed in showing how 



THE ARTS 187 

it works and in making the American feeaper intelligible to 
children. 

Make a section model of a blast-furnace and fill it with ore, 
limestone and coal. 

Dress dolls to represent Marquette and La Salle and furnish 
them with birch-bark canoes, Fort Crevecoeur, French flags, etc. 

Model a canal lock in the Lion River, using the plastic clay 
to model around the ends of the wooden framework. 

Make a wooden pillory large enough to be used in the scenes 
from the " Tragedy of John Endicott." 



1 >' 







NATURE STUDY 

Continue the study of pond life in the life cycle of the frog 
or toad. Collect the eggs as early as possible and put them in 
an aquarium with water plants. The early stages of the tad- 
pole are an annual source of wonder and delight that every 
child should enjoy watching. Have drawings of large size made. 
Provide an abundance of good pictures of the development of a 
tadpole and of its anatomy, such as are in George B. Howe's 
" Atlas of Elementary Biolog}^'' published by Macmillan. 
Have the pupils draw daily from observation and from memory 
the successive stages showing the changes in shape and in 
organs. Eapid blackboard sketching is best for this purpose. 

The autumn study of the birds was intended to be supple- 
mented by a spring study of them. Set out the bird-boxes and 
bring out the chart showing the bird census of the neighbor- 
hood. Mark the new nests on the chart. Note the revival of 
insect life. Country Lifr in America, for April, 1903, has an 
illustrated article on " How to Make a Garden for Birds." 
Bring clearly to mind the interdependence of birds, frogs, toads, 

and the insect life around them. 

. iss 



NATUEE STUDY 



189 



Bring out the tree eliart showing the tree census of the neigh- 
borhood. Compare with the budding trees again. Joliet, 111., 
has nurseries in connection with the public schools for the pur- 
pose of raising trees for the school-yards and for distribution 
among the children for their homes. The nurseries are in the 
school-yards and the actual outlay in ten years has been but 
thirt3^-eight dollars.. The trees are raised from seeds and many 




STUDYING CRAYFISH 



thousands of seedlings have been distributed from the school 
nurseries. This is more effective than even the arbor-day cele- 
brations. Tree seedlings are very attractive and interesting as 
well as comparatively rare in the experience of many children. 
Take the children to the fields and woods on excursions and 
picnics. Teach them to love the brooks, the trees, the water- 
falls, the singing birds and the humming bees, the wild flowers, 
the insects, the grass, the clouds, the very stones and rocks. No 



190 APRIL 

set lessons are wanted, but bright eyes and loving interest in the 
great out-of-doors. Let them hunt for crayfish, watch the min- 
nows and the water skaters, wade in the creek, and build dams, 
locks, and waterfalls, sail boats and rafts, and make water- 
wheels and sluices. 

The School Garden 

Our interest in the world about us is measured by our in- 
creasing care for plants, animals, and children. An interest in 
one simple problem of outdoor nature is worth more than all 
the books can teach without nature. To improve the school 
grounds is to develop interest in outdoor nature. The im- 
provement of the grounds in tidying them up, in caring for the 
lawn, and in planting flowers and trees, is of more importance 
than to teach children to raise vegetables. 

The school garden as a source of material for nature study 
and as a means of teaching gardening and floriculture is a good 
thing, and we need it, but it is not the first consideration nor the 
first step to take. The first year, clean up and grade and sow 
grass seed. The second year, plant. Cover the unsightly fences 
with vines, screen the out-houses with bushes and trees. Adapt 
every arrangement to the use that is to be made of it. Leave 
plenty of space for playground. Avoid all elaborateness of de- 
sign, and use hardy plants that can take care of themselves 
during the summer vacation. Utilize the opportunities nearest 
at hand, woods or running brook, slope of land, vistas, or the 
like. 

If the school grounds are already in proper condition, then 
we may try a school garden for purposes of direct instruction 
in the care of plants and of raising material for use in the 
nature study work. The garden is an outdoor laboratory, and 
not an ornamental piece of landscape gardening. It will serve 



NATURE STUDY 191 

a useful purpose in bringing all the upper classes of the school 
into cooperative work. 

The children of the lower grades may plant seeds, gather wild 
flowers and set them out. The pupils of the fifth and sixth 
grades may study habits of growth in annuals, biennials, and 
perennials; the arrangement of plants to produce succession of 
blooming or bearing; the means of propagation of plants by 
cuttings ; the improvement of species by grafting, cross-fertiliza- 
tion, etc. The upper grades may attend to the tree nursery and 
the hot-beds. 

As far as practicable, the fifth grade should attempt to raise 
samples of all the crops that will grow but are not produced iri 
the vicinity. This will naturally lead to the consideration of 
problems of drainage and irrigation, soils and sunshine. 

The Weather Eecord 

The special subject for April is irrigation, following up the 
study of rainfall in March. Make the term itself perfectly free 
from uncertainty and strangeness by starting with such 
familiar instances of irrigation as the watering of the plants in 
the schoolroom window gardens. Irrigation is not by any 
means confined to the arid or semi-arid regions of the earth. 
Every farm, even every home garden, has its problem of irri- 
gation. 

I remember with what delight I used to enjoy the irrigating 
of our side yard at home in Philadelphia when I was a boy. 
We used running streams of water in ditches, flooded the grass- 
plot, and piped for the farther stretches. Even in the school- 
room an irrigation model may be managed with running water 
in the place of the " Lion Eiver " in the sheet-iron pan. Con- 
struct the model to show one of the irrigation areas in Colorado 
or California, with a sluice-way, storage reservoir, etc. 



192 APRIL 

In the meteorological atlas published by the Weather Bureau 
study the area with scant rainfall. On the floor map have the 
children step out on the area. Note the distribution of rainfall 
thru the year and the character of the river erosion, as shown in 
pictures of the G-rand Canyon and Eocky Mountain scenery. 
See the Census Eeports, 1902, Volume VI, Crops and Irrigation. 

GEOGRAPHY 

During April we pass to the Western States and the Pacific 
Coast. 

Eecall the fourth-grade work on the Lewis and Clark expe- 
dition, the expeditions of Pike and Fremont, and the study 
of the Yellowstone, Eocky Mountains, Grand Canyon, and 
Southern California. Thruout follow the order of discovery 
of the jDhysiographic features; recall Drake's early visit to 
Drake's Bay; Coronado's trail; Fray Marco's Seven Cities of 
Cibola; the voyage of the Columbia; the expedition of Lewis 
and Clark, of Pike, of Fremont, and of Major Powell down the 
Colorado. Get as clear a picture as possible of this western 
region in the days of these pioneer discoverers ; then contrast 
what civilization has been able to make of it by the railroad, by 
artificial irrigation, and adaptation of crops. 

Outline on the floor map the shore line of Lake Bonneville 
and Lake Lahontan and trace the outlet of the former thru the 
Snake Eiver in the Glacial Period. These lakes are supposed 
to have been fed by the ice and snow of the great glaciers in 
the same period in which were formed the Great Lal^es of the 
St. Lawrence system. Compare in size and depth with the 
Great Lakes. 

Trace well the causes of the scant rainfall of the Western 
States. Fully one-third of the United States is dependent on 
irrigation for successful agriculture. Trace the irrigation areas 



GEOGRAPI-IY 



193 



at present reached by water. Seven and a half million acres are 
at present " under the ditch /^ It is estimated that about eight 
times as much area may yet be reached by the water supply. 
Why cannot all the rivers be utilized? Why is the water from 
the upper parts of the river courses more available for irriga- 
tion than that from the lower parts ? There are at present fifty 
thousand miles of ditches; yet the enormous cost of all the irri- 




MINNEHAHA TEACHING HER STORY 



gation works in the country is considerably less than the value 
of the crops thus raised in a single year. The mining state of 
Colorado has more than three-fourths as great an agricultural 
as a mineral output. Consult the section on Irrigation in the 
Twelfth Census, Volume VI. 

The experiment of raising dates in Southern Arizona is very 
suggestive. The region resembles Southern California and also 
in many respects the southern and western shores of the Med- 



194 APRIL 

iterranean. In 1900 the Department of x\griculture at Wash- 
ington, cooperating with the University of Arizona, brought 
over from Algeria shoots of the best varieties of dates, and the 
prospect is fair for success. Tell how the navel orange was pro- 
duced. What other new fruits has Luther Burbank originated? 

Mark on the floor map the chief passes in the Eocky Moun- 
tains and the trails of the pioneers. Note how these are fol- 
lowed by the great transcontinental railroads to-day. Geo- 
graphical conditions have determined the Salt Lake oasis as the 
great railroad center for the region between the Eockies and the 
Sierras. Here unite the old Oregon Trail, the California Trail, 
and the old Spanish Trail to Los Angeles. 

Study with some detail the typical industries of portions of 
this section — gold-mining in California and Colorado ; copper- 
mining in Montana; ranching in Wyoming and Montana; lum- 
bering in Washington and Oregon; fruit-raising in California; 
wheat-raising in the Great Valley; salmon fishing in the 
Columbia. 

Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and 
Portland are not to be judged by the same considerations of 
population as cities in the east. Denver is the business and 
financial headquarters of the Eocky Mountains, and each of the 
far western cities is the focus of larger interests than belong 
to cities of the same size in the east. 

HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

A LARGE part of the work just outlined under Geography is 
historical; but, as it has been gone over in the fourth grade, it 
is recalled now in connection with the geography of the Great 
West. 

The other chief historical material for the month of April 
continues the story of geographical exploration in the extreme 



NUMBEK 195 

north and northwest parts of America. Follow the attempts to 
find a Northwest Passage to Cathay by Martin Frobisher, John 
Davis^ Henry Hudson, and William Baffin. Note the bays and 
straits named after them. Sketch Peter the Great's expedition 
under Vitus Bering in 1724-1728 that resulted in proving 
that the mainland of North America was not connected with 
Asia. 

This exploration by Bering marks the conclusion of the dis- 
covery of America so far as the outline of the continent is 
concerned. Man}^ other interior regions remained to be ex- 
plored. Trace the work of Alexander Mackenzie and George 
Vancouver. 

Treat briefly the history of the attempts to cut a canal at 
Panama. Show the importance of the cut for commerce. 
Have the children appreciate it as the opening of the westerly 
route to India. Compare with the Suez Canal, which opened 
the easterly route to India. 

Eead some of Thompson-Seton's stories of western animals; 
e. g., " Wahb," " Tito/' or others in " Wild Animals I Have 
Known." Mary Austin's " The Land of Little Eain/' published 
by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., is a very entertaining and suggestive 
book on life in the arid West. President D. S. Jordan's " Story 
of Matka and Kotik " has much of the atmosphere and spirit of 
the Mist Islands in the northwest. 

NUMBER 

Enlarge the map of the Western States to double or to 
quadruple its size in the book. 

Continue the construction of circles to represent the popu- 
lation of cities in the Western States. Compare these cities 
with eastern cities in population. Find the ratios correct to the 
tenth's figure. 



196 APRIL 

Find what per cent of the total population of the United 
States is contained in this section. 

Find what per cent of the total area of the United States is 
contained in this section ; in each state of this section. 

Calculate the density of population in each of the Western 
States. 

How man}^ gallons of water are required to cover an acre of 
ground to the depth of one inch? 

How many tons does this amount of water weigh? 

For irrigation in the arid regions there should be for the 
ordinary crops at least enough water during the growing season 
to cover the ground from four to six inches in depth each month. 
How many gallons does that take per acre ? 

LANGUAGE 

A GOOD story well told is admirable for its training in lan- 
guage. Why do so few people succeed in bringing out the 
point of a story that they are telling? In part they fail to 
grasp the point themselves, in part they lack skill in language 
to put the point effectively. The best results will be attained 
by having individual pupils tell fresh stories orally to the 
class. An appreciative audience is essential. Stories of lim- 
ited length could profitably be used as responses to roll-call in 
the society. 

For April the Atlases may contain an illustrated life history 
of the toad; records of picnics with kodak pictures of favorite 
spots and scenes associated with enjoyment of the out-of-doors ; 
a few good stories well told; a map of the school garden with 
the record of work therein; the enlarged map of the Western 
States; condensed accounts of the origination of the navel 
orange ; the work of Luther Burbank at his Experiment Farms 
at Santa Rosa, California ; a condensed life of one or more of 



THE ARTS 197 

the great explorers of the west or northwest; the statistical 
charts growing out of the number work, etc. 

Draw tadpoles, fishes, budding trees, sprouting twigs, birds, 
and school garden scenes; Lewis and Clark sailing up the 
Missouri; pioneer St. Louis, Astoria and San Francisco; 
pictures of the Big Trees; irrigation, gold-mining, and lumber- 
ing scenes; sketches of cowboys, cliff-dwellers, Wahb and Tito 
thru their various experiences, and Kotik and Natka of David 
Starr Jordan's story. 

GrRAMMAR 

The topic is the construction of the participle when it has 
verb nature and noun nature. 

Keep patiently before the children's mind the ways in which 
the participle shows its noun nature and its verb nature. Com- 
pare these constructions with those studied last month. Com- 
pare with similar constructions of the infinitive. 

Distinguish in meaning between such constructions as, " I 
saw him whisper," and ^^ I saw him whispering " ; "I will try 
to remember to do so," and " I have tried tying a string around 
my finger, but, though I remember asking the name a second 
time, I cannot recall it now." 

THE ARTS 

Music 

For April teach the old Welsh melody, " All thru the Night," 
Tennyson's " Crossing the Bar," and Schumann's " We Lay Us 
Down to Sleep." 

These selections are beautiful in rhythmic and interval effects. 
The two-part singing may be continued with them. 



198 APRIL 



Drawing 



Draw the tadpole in different stages and postures; frogs and 
toads, jumping and sitting ; more birds in various poses ; trees in 
bud and early leaf; landscape scenes on the picnics; human fig- 
ures constantly, whenever there is a chance for practice ; the ex- 
plorers Lewis and Clark, Pike, Fremont, Powell, Mackenzie, 
Vancouver ; Rocky Mountain views. Make sketches on the black- 
board of the Grand Canyon; geysers; Big Trees; Indians of the 
plains; Custer's massacre; the completion of the Union Pacific 
Railroad; gold-mining, orange orchards, etc. 

Making 

In April the attention to the school grounds and garden will 
demand all the time that can be given to them. 




NATURE STUDY 



For May and June nothing could be more appropriate than 
the study of brooks on our out-of-door excursions. " The 
Brook Book/' by Mary Rogers Miller^ opens up to us some of the 
delightful possibilities of nature' study by the brookside. The 
running water is like a thing alive and doing something, mur- 
muring and babbling, digging and rolling the stones, reflecting 
the sparkle of the simlight, or spreading out into a placid 
pond of deeper water. The minnows, the newts, the crayfish, 
the snails, the leeches, the larvas and adults of the various 
water insects are never-ending sources of interest to healthy 
children. 

In the brook itself we have all the features of a river in minia- 
ture, so that we can oversee the whole formation and trace cause 
and effect. Children delight in giving local names to places and 
features that in any way resemble places they have read or heard 

199 



200 MAY AND JUNE 

of, as, for example, Minnehaha Falls in " Y ^^ Hollow and 
Niagara in Buffington's Kavine. Thus, the local landscape may 
soon be filled with associations of Columbus, De Soto, Mar- 
quette, Miles Standish, William Penn, Roger Williams, etc. On 




IN THE BROOK 

a neck of land the children cut the Panama Canal ; on a pen- 
insula connected by a narrow neck to the mainland they lay out 
the town of Boston. In yonder larger bay they see a resemblance 
to the Gulf of Mexico, and proceed to increase the resemblance 
by building the West Indian Islands and Florida; soon boats 



NATURE STUDY 201 

are sailing over the waters, and the Mississippi is opened up. 
With the rehearsal of the scenes of the discovery of America fresh 
in mind the Penn Treaty Elm is found, the Charter Oak again 
receives the Connecticut Charter for safe-keeping, the band of 
explorers again journeys up the Missouri to its head waters and 
over the ridge back of town, to descend on the other side into 
the valley of the Columbia. In the afternoon we return up 
and over the divide with two parties under Lewis and Clark 
and meet at the mouth of the Yellowstone before coming into 
town. 

Teach the children to appreciate natural beauties and inno- 
cent pleasures, avoiding all that injures or mars. Thus, the 
wild-flowers, the mossy banks, the carpets of ferns, the violets 
and trailing arbutus will not be ruthlessly torn up as merely 
private possessions, to be snatched from their setting to die in 
the hands and later be dropped by the roadside, but will be 
enjoyed where they are, and the lovely ravines will begin to be 
rightly appreciated. Such places should be used as parks for 
children and older people to ramble thru, as sacred to nature 
worship, as important in their way for the full emotional life, 
as are churches and theaters. 

Of course, if you have a school garden, a considerable part 
of the time for nature study in May and June will be devoted to 
the flowers and vegetables. If the start of the work has been 
made early enough in March and April, by May and June flowers 
and fruit will already begin to shoM^ The June Flower Show 
may appropriately include plants grown either in crocks at home 
or in the school garden. It may serve all the good purposes 
and embrace all the good features of the horticultural and agri- 
cultural fairs. 

The school garden will need the attention of volunteers to 
look after it for the summer vacation. This attention should 
be planned in advance, and should have reference to the autumn 



NATURE STUDY 203 

work in the school garden in September and October. If it be 
possible to organize the work as a vacation school, so much the 
better. 

If for any reason a school garden is not feasible, the class 
may try hatching chicks in an incubator and raising them in a 
brooder in the schoolroom. As they grow too large for the 
brooder they may be distributed among the children for home 
raising. 

If it be preferred, the time may be devoted to gathering and 
preserving an herbarium. 

The Weather Record 

In May and June it is planned to study climate by means 
of the monthly and yearly summaries of the chief elements that 
are involved in climate. It is intended to pass in review the 
seasonal changes in temperature, moisture, wind, sunshine, and 
length of day for the whole year. 

On the floor map the changes of position of the monthly 
isotherms will be represented by the movement of a line of boys 
or girls on the map marking the average monthly temperature 
as it recedes southward in the autumn and returns northward 
again in the spring. The seasonal changes in rainfall may be 
represented similarly. 

The changes in length of day at different latitudes may best 
be represented by charts or by discs divided proportionally 
into sectors corresponding to day and night. (See page 124.) 
If a hundred such adjustable discs are arranged to represent 
the proportion of day and night on January 1st in the several 
states of the United States, they may then be laid on the floor 
map in their respective states and we shall have a fair diagram 
of the daylight proportion for the whole country. Now re- 
arrange the discs for July 1st and note the great contrast in 



204 MAY AND JUNE 

the proportion of daylight. This change may be followed thru- 
out the year. 

The average annual range of temperature may also be repre- 
sented by sticks cut to scale (one inch to a degree) and stood 
up on the floor map. A similar method may be used to repre- 
sent the thermal anomalies. Compare charts in William M. 
Davis's " Elementary Meteorology/' page 72 to page 74. 

The advance of the annual ice and snow sheet southward in 
autumn and its retreat northward in spring may be very vividly 
represented by the movement of a line of boys and girls south- 
ward and then northward on the floor map, corresponding to the 
positions of the edge of the ice and snow sheet in the different 
weeks of autumn, winter, and spring. 

GEOGRAPHY 

During May and June we study the commerce and manu- 
factures of the United States : first, the domestic commerce ; 
secondly, the foreign commerce. 

In our study of the industries of the different sections of the 
United States in the preceding months the work has been 
grouped by sections, and we have followed the march of the 
explorers and settlers, the pioneers and the frontiersmen. In 
May and June we review the present work of the nation as such, 
arranging the materials by industries, in order to study the 
commerce that grows out of these conditions. It is the ge- 
ography of the present. 

The outline on the opposite page, which is substantially that 
used by the United States government in its reports, is our guide. 

Have the children prepare and place on the different areas 
of the floor map signs for the different industries conducted 
there; e. g., the cotton area of the South may be covered with 
cotton; pictures of cod, oyster boats, cattle, sheep and horses 



GEOGRAPHY 



205 



I. Agriculture. 



II. Forests ■ — Lumber. 



III. Fisheries. 



IV. Mines. 



Origin 



'Food Products of J 



r Cereals 
,;.,,, Fruits 

I Stimulants 
t Narcotics 
r Cattle 
I Sheep 
\ Hogs 



I Animal 
l^Origin 



^Raw Materials of 



Dairying 
I Poultry 
LEggs 
f Cotton 
r Vegetable ) ^}^^ 

Origin i Hemp 

' Jute 

I Oils 

rwooi 

I Silk 
-{ Leather 
I Fur 
(^Feathers 



Animal 
I Origin 



r Ocean Fisheries 



r Atlantic Coast 
') "Grand Banks" 
1 Gulf Coast 
I, Pacific Coast 
River and Lake Fisheries 

flron and Steel 



r Metals 



j Gold 



Silver 
, Copper 
tLead and Zinc 



Coal — Petroleum 
I Stone 
I Clay 
V. Manufactures — Iron and Steel. Textiles, Leather, Chemicals, Paper, Pot- 
tery, Glass. 



may be stood up on the appropriate parts of the map; speci- 
mens of wool, flax, silk, leather, coal, stone, clay, wheat, corn, 
barley, hay, iron, ores, cloth, clothing, paper, etc., may be put 
on areas to denote the respective indnstries there carried on. 

Now, with a previously gained knowledge of the density of 
population in the different parts of the country, the children 
will be ready for the understanding of the domestic commerce. 
Different children may be assigned to the chief commercial cen- 
ters, as, N'ew York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, 
San Francisco, etc., to study the receipt and despatch of freight. 

Statements may be made out of goods sent corresponding to 
the actual figures for the cities so sending. These may be 
carried by other children (representing transportation com- 



206 MAY AND JUNE 

parties)^ exchanged at the various trade centers as they come 
to these for other bills of lading, to correspond with the make- 
up of new freight trains or boats, and handed over finally to the 
cities containing the consumers, or else reaching the seaports 
for foreign export. 

In this way the business of the great transportation companies 
may be graphically acted out, and the reasons for the location 
of the chief trunk lines made clear. The nature of trade cen~ 
ters will thus be brought out. A typical trade center, e. g., 
Pittsburg, Minneapolis, or San Francisco, may be studied with 
more detail.* 

The movement of great staples — as wheat, cotton, iron ore, 
lumber, etc. — may be followed singly, and thus their relative 
importance shown. It would be well to have separate maps 
drawn for each staple product, showing the areas of production, 
the areas of manufacture, and areas of consumption. 

The foreign commerce should be succinctly treated under the 
heads of imports and exports. For each article of import or of 
export we should have a map of the world showing the produc- 
ing area and the consuming area.f 



HISTORY AND LITERATURE 

We review in May and June the work of three centuries of 
discovery and exploration of America, from the time of Colum- 
bus to the time of Jefferson. In the months from September 
to April we followed the progress of geographical knowledge 
and settlement; in the review in May and June we follow the 
varying fortunes of the European nations that took part in the 
enterprise. 

* See McMurry's " Type Studies from United States Geography," p. 154. 
t See map "The United States in the World's Markets," in Chapter X of Trot- 
ter's Geography of Commerce, published by The Macmillan Company. 



HISTOEY AND LITERATURE 207 

The wreck of the Santa Maria on Hispaniola determined the 
site of the first European colony in the New World. This be- 
came the center for all the Spanish expeditions and the spread 
of the Spanish occupation. Spain claimed the whole of the 
continent both north and south, and, as she thought, had it 
confirmed to her by the Treaty of Tordesilhas in 1494. 

Eecall the Spanish conquest of Peru, of Mexico, of Florida. 
Trace the explorations of Coronado and Fray Marcos. On an 
outline map of North and South America shade the parts occu- 
pied by the Spanish claims, making the shade very light in the 
unknown regions but denser in the parts actually under the 
Spanish rule till the close of the sixteenth century. 

The Spanish struggle with heresy, with the Moors, with the 
Dutch, and with England brought her from her proud position 
of preeminence. The defeat of the Armada in 1588 opened 
the way for English colonization. 

France and England, as rivals of Spain and as rivals of each 
other, now began feeling their way into the settlement of North 
America. France entered into the interior of the continent 
for the fur trade, and hence explored up the St. Lawrence, the 
Great Lakes, and across the carries to the streams that flow 
into the Mississippi. New France and Louisiana were thus 
the St. Lawrence Valley and the Mississippi Valley. The Eng- 
lish, going much more slowly, settled close to the coast, but 
founded self-governing communities. 

The contrast between the French dominion and the English 
colonies must bring out why the latter became the refuge for 
the persecuted of all nations. Unlike the Spanish and French 
colonies that involved the conquest, subjugation, and spoliation 
of the native races, the English colonies were free and self- 
governing communities that had dispossessed the Indians. 
When the struggle between England and France came in the 
great conflict from 1689 to 1763 it was the difference in the 



308 MAY AND JUNE 

colonies more than the help from the mother countries that de- 
cided the issue. The colonies of Sweden and Holland were but 
ventures of trading companies, and yielded almost without a 
struggle. 

On an outline map of North America color in yellow the 
area of French occupation in 1689 and in red the area of Eng- 
lish settlement. The part still held by the Spanish may be 
shaded. Leave in white the unexplored portions. This map 
will leave the next epoch of struggle between France and Eng- 
land for colonial possession as an already interesting problem 
for the children preparatory to entering the following grade in 
next September. 

List the areas explored, the rivers discovered, the lakes, falls, 
capes, islands, etc., named by the Spanish explorers. In each 
case give the date and the explorer's name. Make a similar 
list of French and English explorations. A short list will 
suffice for Holland and Russia. 

On an outline map of America color all regions explored by 
the Spanish, the French, the English, the Dutch, and the Rus- 
sians with distinctive coloring, to bring out clearly the part 
taken by each nation in the work of exploration. 

Why did Portugal take no part in the discovery or explora- 
tion of North America ? 

Why did Germany take no part? Why did not Italy and 
Greece take part? 

Why did not Russia begin exploring in North America 
sooner? Can you find any reason why she gave up, and sold 
out to the Ubited States in 1867? 

Describe briefly the character and purposes of the Spanish 
explorers ; of the French explorers ; of the English explorers ; of 
the Dutch explorers; of the Russian explorers. State the rad- 
ical differences between the settlers of the rival nations and their 
purposes in colonizing. 



NUMBER 209 

For May and June we read from William J. Long's " School 
of the Woods/' David Starr Jordan's '^ Story of a Salmon/' or 
Charles G. D. Eoberts's '^ The Kindred of the Wild." We 
choose poems of nature to commit to memory from Wordsworth, 
Whittier, Lowell, or Browning. 

NUMBER 

A GREAT deal of arithmetic will be necessary in the weather 
work and geography above outlined for May and June. 

The study of the foreign commerce of the United States will 
make desirable the comparison of the countries with which we 
carry on commerce and our own, in area, population, and value 
of the chief products. This comparison may best be made by 
finding the ratio of the area, population, etc., of the United 
States to the area, population, etc., of the foreign country. 
These ratios should be carried out to the tenth's figure. 

The year's work in arithmetic should be brought together 
into systematic order and reviewed as an independent subject. 
Have some calculations in all the four fundamental processes 
by the old Eoman notation. Contrast this with the Arabic 
notation and numeration. 

State the rules for finding circumference and area of a cir- 
cle ; surface of a sphere ; square root. 

Eeview the topics of average, ratio, proportion, percentage. 

Eeview the imagery of the process of finding area by multi- 
plying the number of units of measure in each row by the num- 
ber of rows. 

Review and summarize the metric system of weights and 
measures. 

Have the four processes in decimals reviewed. 



310 



MAY AND JUNE 



LANGUAGE 

Arrange with other schools or with other classes of the same 
school to exchange letters. Have the children write to definite 
individuals^ and not merely address the letters in blank. The 
letters may profitably include a review in summarized form of 
the work of the year. One letter may be devoted to the nature 





f4 




^"^'^^ ^-S^-' ^■''" 


' :V 





HUNTING SNAILS EGGS 



study and the answer to it may be on the same subject or may 
include another. This answer will, no doubt, suggest the next 
topic on which to write, or the subject may be the work in 
geography for the year. The next letter may tell of the work in 
history, and the following one be devoted to the books read ; the 
next may describe the work in arithmetic, language, etc. One 
letter may tell of the Literary Society, another of the Junior 
Naturalist Club, another of the school garden, or the class pic- 
nics, etc. 



THE ARTS 211 

For May and June the Atlases may contain copies of the 
above correspondence; record of work in the school garden, with 
photographs showing the progress made; the maps and charts 
showing the weather summaries for the year ; the maps in color 
to show explorations of the various nations in America; the 
written summary of the industries of the United States, follow- 
ing the outline given above under geography, and a similar 
summary of our foreign commerce by items. 

Draw the outdoor objects seen on excursions; sketch trees, 
crayfish, insects, wild-flowers, children wading in the brook, 
birds' nests, chickens, school garden scenes, flowers for the June 
Flower Show, railroad engines, freight and passenger cars, canal 
boats, grain elevators, wharves, river and ocean steamers, 
bridges, etc. 

Grammar 

If the need of knowing the various verb phrase forms has 
not already shown itself and led to their being taught, it will 
be high time now to get them mastered by running thru them 
all in the full conjugation of the verb. No definitions are 
wanted, but simply the grouping of the forms by persons and 
tenses, and getting used to them by going thru a few verbs 
until the forms are familiar. 

All the constructions taught during the previous months 
should be reviewed and thus a general survey of the year's work 
be obtained. 

THE ARTS 

Music 

The main selection for May is " Rest in the Lord," from 
Mendelssohn's oratorio of " Elijah." 



212 



MAY AND JUNE 



In connection with Decoration Day learn the " Soldiers' 
Chorus/' from Goimod's " Faust/' as a two-part song. Long- 
fellow's " Decoration Day " requiem also is appropriate and 
fine. 

In June, toward the close of school, have a musical after- 
noon, and invite the parents to be present. Freshen up all the 




THE OIL DERRICK 



work of the year for this occasion by review, and then give the 
cream of the selections in a program entirely devoted to music. 
Some of the numbers may be papers recounting the chief facts 
in regard to composers, or their works, or some of the most im- 
portant historical steps in the development of music. If possi- 



THE ARTS 213 

ble^ have one or more numbers by the best procurable outside 
talent. 

Drawing 

If the work in drawing has received the attention here de- 
manded for it, and if this practice has been concentrated on 
outline drawing, I believe the children will show a progress in 
facility of representation with the pencil that will surpass their 
progress in any other subject. The one essential thing is patient 
and persistent practice. Practice will overcome every difficulty, 
and the result is worth all the time spent on it. Children of the 
fifth grade can do surprising things in drawing. 

Continue to illustrate every lesson, every piece of written 
work, every recitation, with large blackboard sketches as well as 
with pencil drawings on paper. The teacher's part is to demon-' 
strate by example the value of facility in drawing, to offer 
opportunities, and to encourage with suggestions as to subject 
and technique. Much good may be obtained by studying and 
imitating the simple technique of good drawings by the masters 
of the art. Very little explanation is needed by the children, but 
plenty of good examples in drawing. 

Making 

In May and June the garden will demand a large part of the 
available time. Picnics will be more profitable than staying 
indoors at work. 

But when the weather is inclement the children may make 
boats of various kinds, from the simple rafts, skiffs, and dugouts, 
to the river steamer or ocean steamship or sailing vessel. These 
craft should be taken along on picnics and many of the facts 
of commerce may be learned in the delightful fun of sailing 
boats on the pools in the brook, wading in after them as Gulli- 
ver did with ships of the Lilliputians. 




1 



'^^i^i^i 



MOV 2 1905 



